


The Ties that Bind us

by martianswearorangesocks



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Action/Adventure, Blueshipping, F/M, Friendship, Past Lives, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-04-26 04:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14394126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martianswearorangesocks/pseuds/martianswearorangesocks
Summary: Vowing to win back the title of King of Games from Yugi, Kaiba organizes another tournament – The KC Grand Prix 2.0. The stakes are heightened for Kaiba when a mysterious silver-haired duelist shows up. What happens when another organization with ties to ancient Egypt threatens to bring the return of the Shadow Games? Will Kaiba finally be forced to accept his Egyptian heritage?





	1. Dawn of a New Enemy

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I was re-watching Season 5 of Yugioh recently and the idea came to mind. Hope you like it and any constructive criticism is much appreciated. Note that I've watched the English dub because I simply can't multitask for nuts so the characters will be based on that (Actually, I grew up watching the Chinese dub but that was truly diabolical hahaha, you don't want to know). The events of this story are supposed to take place after the Dawn of the Duel Arc and I've tried to keep as much continuity as possible though if there are any issues with timeline please do flag it out/suspend judgement temporarily. It's my first Yugioh fic so please be kind!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh and any of the characters. I only own my OCs and ideas :)

Darkness descended around the city like a velvet glove. The rest of the city had already gone to sleep but Seto Kaiba was wide awake. The young millionaire toiled away at his computer, never once taking his eyes off the neon screen. He preferred working through the night anyway, where there was no one around to get on his nerves.

Ever since the final showdown between Yugi and the Pharaoh, Kaiba had sworn off dueling to focus on managing KaibaCorp. After the crazy events of the past few years, he needed a break anyway. Duel Monsters was just a simple card game albeit injected with a dose of realism thanks to KaibaCorp's Soft Vision technology. But those were just holograms. Kaiba could not fathom why Yugi and his dweeb patrol believed that Duel Monsters was linked to "magic".

The break from dueling had done him good. Of late, there were more important goals on his mind. A rare smile spread across his lips as he thought of his promise to his younger brother Mokuba.  _"We are going to make so many children happy Seto!"_ A deep sense of satisfaction came over him. Soon, his sleepless nights would come to fruition. The Kaiba brothers had dedicated the past 2 years to building Kaiba Lands around the world to much success. In a flash of inspiration, Kaiba had decided to upgrade the Kaiba Land in Domino city, drawing on his experiences over the past years. He figured most people would never experience the thrill and exhilaration of the 3 Egyptian God Cards but with the new rides he had in store, they would come very close. Domino's Kaiba Land would be the best theme park in the world! And to commemorate its opening, the Kaibas were going to organize a reboot of the KC Grand Prix.

It would be the best tournament KaibaCorp had organized yet. He was going to invite all the best duellists in the world, and the new rides at Kaiba Land would be the backdrop against which they dueled. And to top it all off, Kaiba was going to win back his title as King of Games from Yugi Mutou. Kaiba grinned – it was going to be the perfect PR opportunity for KaibaCorp.

His computer screen flickered momentarily. Odd, thought Kaiba. He had invested in the best technology money could buy, it certainly wasn't supposed to malfunction on him! He gritted his teeth in frustration and felt the beginnings of a headache stirring in his brain.

Maybe he should take a break. Kaiba sighed and massaged his throbbing temples. He knew how excited Mokuba was about the project and could hardly let his little brother down. Kaiba knew Mokuba looked up to him more than anything in the world and he would do anything to make his brother happy.

The buzz generated by the upgraded Kaiba Land and the planned KC Grand Prix 2.0 would no doubt increase Kaiba Corp's share price substantially and make the Kaibas richer than they ever were. The thought of that should have given him a high but he had begun to feel jaded out of late, which struck him as strange. At the tender age of 21, Kaiba controlled one of the world's most powerful corporations. Despite the challenges, he loved his job and the intellectual stimulation it provided. But of late, he had begun to feel like something was missing from his life. He eyes landed on the shelf at the corner of his cavernous office which contained all his prized dueling trophies.

Once upon a time, he had been crowned the best duellist in the world. Until of course that annoying Yugi Mutou and his twin "Pharaoh" took the title away from him. Yugi couldn't even fight his own battles, he had to hire someone to fight them for him! Kaiba thought angrily. He still didn't buy into that ancient Egyptian bullshit that Ishizu Ishtar and her freak of brother Marik had been spewing. It was just an elaborate scam by Ishizu to manipulate him into organizing Battle City. Magic didn't exist! Science and logic were the building blocks of the universe! Still, with the "Pharaoh" gone, maybe the tables had finally turned. He had faced his share of formidable opponents over the past years and he was confident he had grown exponentially in dueling prowess. He was sure he was the best duellist in the world. While Yugi still held that title officially, Kaiba relished the idea of winning it back. There was an empty space on his trophy shelf and he intended to fill it.

"Soon Yugi, I will challenge you for the title of King of Games," Kaiba vowed to himself.

His screen flickered again. "What is wrong with you today," Kaiba growled, hitting his keyboard angrily. He didn't have the time to deal with such nonsense. The flickering worsened, causing the images on his screen to pixelate and flash green. Wait, that was not his computer malfunctioning! Kaiba blanched in horror as a message began to appear on the screen:

_"Greetings Seto Kaiba, we finally meet…"_

"Who's there!" Kaiba demanded, slamming his fist onto the table. "And how did you manage to bypass the firewall?" KaibaCorp's security was supposed to be state of the art, no one should have been able to hack him! Kaiba furiously punched at his keyboard but to no avail.

_"I have waited a long time for this moment. You are not quite how I expected you to be, Pharaoh Seto."_

"I don't have time for games! Who are you?!"

_"How rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Scorpios and I serve the King of the Shadows. Darkness shall return to the Earth once more to punish the souls of the evil-doers, of which you have a big part to play. The wheels of fate have been set into motion. Resistance is futile."_

"What nonsense are you spouting?!"

_"You will come to understand, Seto Kaiba. We shall soon meet in the Ultimate Shadow Duel. You will pay for the sins you and your company have committed. See you at the Grand Prix. I will be waiting for you."_

The screen flickered once more, dissolving into a series of what appeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Kaiba angrily hit number 2 on his speed dial. "Roland, code red, we have a breach! Get me any information you can find on Scorpios! And reinforce our firewalls! I'm not sure how those clowns managed to hack into our system but see to it that it never happens again!"

What was with the ancient Egyptian nonsense again? Years ago, Ishizu Ishtar had confronted Kaiba about his supposed Egyptian roots, but it was all just superstitious bullshit that she had used to manipulate him. He could accept that Duel Monsters were used in ritual combat during ancient times, but the fact that Ishizu's tablet displayed a figure who looked like him was just a coincidence. Kaiba most certainly didn't believe in past lives. He was a man of logic and reason and there was no concrete proof that reincarnation existed. And the mysterious white-haired girl who had come to him in his visions was merely a figment of his imagination. There was no way a mortal could have shared the same spirit as his Blue Eyes White Dragon! Yes, he had been stressed, that's all. That was the reason why he had been hallucinating in those duels with Yugi. Kaiba had been relieved that she had not come back to haunt him since.

Thinking of the message, Kaiba's eyebrows knitted together in rage. He was sick of all these losers accusing KaibaCorp of being evil! KaibaCorp had endured an unfair share of negative publicity in the past years, and it was only thanks to Kaiba's excellent crisis management skills that the company was still alive. He couldn't fathom why people were so eager to paint KaibaCorp as the root of all evil. They manufactured gaming technology for God's sake! All he had ever tried to do was to use technology to improve the lives of people, such as through the construction of Kaiba Lands all over the world for underprivileged children to enjoy. He would never allow KaibaCorp to do anything that would be considered "evil". After all, that was the reason he had ousted Gozaburo! His stepfather was going to use their technology for war, which Kaiba could never get behind. He had been called a lot of things by the media – scheming, ruthless, sociopathic even. But a bully was certainly not one of them. From the first day he took over KaibaCorp, Kaiba had sworn never to let KaibaCorp's technology fall into the wrong hands, lest they were used for destruction.

And how had Scorpios managed to bypass his security system? It was supposed to be impenetrable! Kaiba had seen to that following Zigfried von Schroeder's attempt to hack him at the previous Grand Prix. No matter, he was sure it was just a prank anyway. "Scorpios? What kind of name is that? How pathetic, must be some lame hacker who still lives in his mum's basement," scowled Kaiba, folding his arms across his chest. They were certainly nothing to be feared. His gray KC trench coat billowed in the night breeze.

Still…if Scorpios had broken through his firewall, perhaps they were a potential threat after all and not meant to be taken lightly. With KaibaCorp's reputation on the line, all threats had to be eliminated swiftly. Kaiba would not risk anything ruining the grand reopening of Kaiba Land and the KC Grand Prix 2.0. It was finally his chance to show Yugi who was the true King of Games! His fists clenched into a tight ball. If only he could smoke those cowards out! He would have loved to publicly humiliate the mastermind behind Scorpios himself! They were most certainly trying to ruin the reputation of KaibaCorp, which he had worked so tirelessly to restore. He would most certainly not abide by that! He had worked too long and too hard for his moment of victory be ruined by some clowns.

Kaiba gritted his teeth. He would find out who was behind this mess and make sure the person paid dearly.

* * *

_The sands swirled at his feet. In the distance, the outline of the pyramids loomed, shining a magnificent golden in the afternoon sun. "Huh, am I in ancient Egypt again?" wondered Yugi Mutou. He grasped at his neck, only to realize his millennium puzzle was not there. Old habits, he thought._

_After since the conclusion of the Dark RPG against Bakura and the departure of Pharaoh Atem, Yugi had not had a vision of Egypt. While he was sad to see the Pharaoh go, Yugi realized that he had to grow into his own person, and the adventures that he and the Pharaoh shared were all leading up to that._

" _We will forever be connected, Yugi. The lessons we taught each other will never leave us." Yugi could almost hear the Pharaoh's kind reassuring voice in his head._

" _Yugi…" Yugi smiled. The Pharaoh sure had a way with words. He always knew what to say to encourage Yugi when he was down and Yugi hoped he could emulate the Pharaoh's strong yet gentle spirit. Two years had passed but it was almost as if it was yesterday that he had traversed across the sands of ancient Egypt, searching for the Pharaoh's forgotten name._

" _I said Yugi!" Yugi whirled around and was shocked to come face to face with the Pharaoh himself!_

" _Pharaoh! Uh…I mean Atem. What are you doing here?" Yugi waved excitedly at his old friend. He had missed the Pharaoh immensely and was glad to see him again._

" _Yugi, I've been trying to reach you." The Pharaoh had a tense expression on his face. "There is something I must tell you urgently. I sense something evil stirring from the depths of the shadows and I fear someone may be trying to access the powers of the Shadow Realm for evil gain. I have a bad feeling, and I don't like it."_

" _But that's impossible! We put an end to the Shadow Games when we defeated Zorc!" Yugi retorted, sinking to the floor in shock. Pharaoh Atem had sealed away the power of the Millennium Items when he crossed over to the afterlife and that meant the Shadow Realm could never be accessed by mankind again._

" _Indeed, but you remember Dartz and the Orichalchos stones don't you? The Millennium Items are but one gateway the Realm of Shadows. I worry that someone has discovered yet another. The Shadow Games must never return to mankind! If I am right Yugi, I fear you may be the only person who can stop this dark power."_

" _But I can't do this by myself Pharaoh! The only reason we were able to defeat Zorc and Bakura was that I had you by my side!" Yugi felt tears welling up in the corner of his eyes. The Pharaoh had always been his source of strength. It was the Pharaoh who had given him the power to triumph over his adversaries!_

" _I'm afraid you are on your own Yugi. I am beyond the land of the living now. There is nothing more I can do except warn you of the upcoming danger…I see a duel in the shadows. But fear not, you have a strong spirit Yugi. After all, you were able to defeat the 3 Egyptian Gods single-handedly. Remember the lessons we learned together. Remember the heart of the cards! You and our friends must stop this evil before it is too late. The fate of mankind may very well rest in your hands!"_

" _But Pharaoh…."_

Yugi Muto woke up in cold sweat, grasping at the corners of his blanket as he panted heavily. He sighed, collapsing back onto his pillow. It was just a bad dream. Yet…could there be some meaning behind it? He had not had any visions of the Pharaoh in the past two years. Why now? And the Pharaoh had sounded deeply disturbed in his dream. Could there really be another doorway between Earth and the Shadow Realm?

It was probably just his imagination anyway…no sense worrying about nothing. He was confident that they had locked away evil for good. He and the Pharaoh had certainly given Zorc a good thrashing in the Dark RPG and he would not be returning anytime soon.

With a giant yawn, Yugi rolled out of bed. It was Saturday morning and he was supposed to meet his friends today for breakfast! It had been their ritual to meet once a month since they graduated from high school last year. They had gone their separate ways, chasing their individual dreams.

Yugi had decided to study archaeology at Domino College. After everything he had experienced in Atlantis and Ancient Egypt, he felt a strong push to dig deeper into the origins of ancient civilizations. The Pharaoh's memories had provided a mere glimpse into the ancient past. What were the other secrets that had yet to be uncovered? Yugi was determined to find out. Meanwhile, Tea Gardner was attending dance school up north, chasing her dream of being a professional dancer, Joey Wheeler was in business school, vowing to start his own business someday and Tristan Taylor had decided to take up engineering.

The gang still kept in touch regularly with Duke Devlin, whose Dungeon Dice Monsters game had really taken off in the past year, turning him into a millionaire almost overnight and Ryou Bakura, who had moved back to Britain. Yugi didn't blame Bakura, after all the trauma that had been inflicted upon him by the spirit of the Millennium Ring, it was no wonder Bakura wanted to keep a safe distance between himself and Domino City. Yugi only hoped his friend was doing okay.

"Hey guys! How have you been doing?" Yugi greeted his friends cheerily as he slid into his usual seat on the outdoor patio. All thoughts of yesterday's bad dream had been banished. The weather was cool and breezy – the perfect Saturday morning to catch up with his best friends.

"Morning Yuge! Couldn't be any better!" winked Joey as he dug into his stacks of pancakes. Yugi laughed. Joey hadn't changed at all over the years – he still had a bottomless pit for a stomach!

"You're late Yugi! We were gonna start without you," giggled Tea. "Joey and Tristan were so hungry that they couldn't wait!"

"I've missed you guys!" Yugi beamed. While he finally had the confidence to approach people and make new friends, no one could never replace Joey, Tea, and Tristan. Not after everything that had gone through together. Their adventures with the Pharaoh had taught them the important lesson that friendship could overcome anything.

Yugi proceeded to fill his friends in on what he had been up to in Uni and all thoughts of his bad dream had been banished. He had been reading up on ancient Egypt and the research had proved to be very fruitful. A new tablet had been uncovered in Cairo and Yugi wondered if it would bring any stories as to the fate of ancient Egypt after the Pharaoh had left.  _I'm sure King Seto did a very good job of ruling Egypt after the Pharaoh left_ , thought Yugi _. He's a great leader! That's probably why Kaiba's such a great businessman_.

The thought made Yugi chuckle. Not that Kaiba would ever acknowledge it but he shared many traits with his Egyptian counterpart. Yugi hadn't really kept in touch with his former nemesis turned occasional ally. Kaiba himself never bothered to stay in touch after they had returned from Egypt. It stung a little as Yugi had come to consider Kaiba as his friend but Yugi chalked it up to Kaiba being too busy with his company. Kaiba had really thrown himself into the management of KaibaCorp since then, even swearing off dueling until he had accomplished his dream of building Kaiba Lands all over the world. Yugi had only seen Kaiba on TV since then.

"Hey dweeb patrol, long time no see. Thought I might find you here."  _Speaking of the devil_. A shiny silver Lamborghini emblazoned with the KC logo pulled up on the sidewalk. At the wheel was the young CEO of KaibaCorp himself flanked by his brother Mokuba, looking as suave as ever.

"Rich boy?" Joey blanched. "Will ya quit calling us that?!"  _Why the nerve of Kaiba_! Joey fumed.  _After everything we've gone through and he's still such a big jerk!_

"Never," Kaiba smirked. "Anyway, I've just come to drop off your invitations to the KC Grand Prix 2.0. As you may know, the grand reopening of Kaiba Land is in a couple of weeks, and I'm hosting the ultimate tournament to commemorate that. It's for real duellists only, so make sure you can handle the heat, Wheeler."

Joey's jaw dropped in shock, causing him to nearly miss the envelope Kaiba tossed at him. "Hold up, rich boy! Does that mean you finally consider me to be a proper duellist?"

"Fat chance. I'm adding a little twist to the KC Grand Prix this year. Up and coming duellists all over the world will compete for the chance to duel against the current Top 8 in the quarter-finals. Since your position on the list is a just a fluke and you could never win against a real duellist, I can't wait to see the look on your face when these amateurs wipe the floor with you. And by the way, I heard you got into some second-rate business school. I'm impressed - not bad for a mutt."

"You take that back Kaiba! You'll see when I start my own company and make more money than you! And I'm gonna win that championship! Just you wait!" Joey leaped out of his seat but was thankfully held back by Tea and Tristan before he had the chance to strike the smug CEO.

"Hmph, like that will ever happen. I'm sure you will be knocked out in Round 1," Kaiba snickered, folding his arms across his chest. "Anyway Yugi, I fully expect to duel you for the title as the King of Games in the finals. Let's hope you haven't forgotten how to duel now that your imaginary friend is gone. Don't let me down."

"You got it Kaiba! I look forward to our duel. We'll see who's the best duellist yet!"

The conversation was cut short by Kaiba's blaring cell phone.

"What is it, Roland? You are kidding me! Arrrgh, those fools are useless. God knows why I haven't fired them already…And you are sure about that? Alright, I'll return immediately." A dark look crossed Kaiba's face. "C'mon Mokuba let's go. They need us at HQ. See you dweebs at the Grand Prix."

"Bye Yugi!" Mokuba called. "Seto is going to kick your ass this time!"

The Kaiba brothers sped off in their Lamborghini in a cloud of exhaust that sent everyone coughing.

"Alright Yuge, here's our chance to duel again!" Joey exclaimed, punching his fist into the air.

Yugi smiled. It would be his first tournament without the Pharaoh. He could almost imagine how proud his other half would be when he won it.

* * *

She clutched the envelope against her chest. She hadn't expected her plan to work! So much depended on this…She had sacrificed so much to get this far and she wasn't about to give up now!

" _Attention Passengers, this is your pilot speaking. We are now preparing for descent. Please make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened and your tray tables are stowed away. It's a beautiful day in Domino City and the weather is a pleasant 77 degrees. Thank you for flying with United Airways and we wish you a pleasant stay."_

She flicked away a few stray strands of silver hair from her eyes. Domino City. Home of the original Kaiba Land and the KC Grand Prix 2.0. Her jaw clenched as she gazed down at the duel disk strapped to her wrist. This was the final moment of reckoning.

_It's all come down to this._

Pulling out her good luck card, she smiled as her fingers brushed across the smooth, cold surface. It even seemed to shimmer under the sunlight streaming in through the window. Her monster had always been there for her through the toughest of times and if her plan was going to work, she would need all the help she could get.

_Alright Seto Kaiba, let's see if you are prepared for what's coming to you._

End of Chapter One


	2. Second Strike

Yugi Muto twiddled at his thumbs.  _'Alright Yugi, you can do this! You just need to ask the professor for two weeks off school so you can take part in the KC Grand Prix 2.0. There, it's simple right? I'm the King of Games after all!'_ With a gulp, Yugi summoned all his courage and rapped on the door. He always felt extra self-conscious whenever he was speaking to people in positions of authority.

"Come in!"

"Hi, Professor…" Yugi stammered.

"Oh Yugi! So good to see you. I was just about done speaking with our guest." The professor smiled warmly, adjusting the thick-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. Yugi was fond of Professor van Allen, under whom he was taking a class on Ancient Egyptian History. He had grown up on the tall tales of his grandpa and Professor Hawkins, which had caused him to believe that archaeologists were entirely an eccentric bunch but Professor Howard van Allen was quite the opposite. The young professor seemed very cool and down to earth and he always had the time to chat with his students after lectures. Yugi really looked up to him as a role model. The professor was only in his late twenties but he had already published in some of the top journals in the field.

"Yugi, we finally meet again," came a familiar mildly accented voice.

"Ishizu? What are you doing here?" Yugi was truly stunned to see his long-time Egyptian friend. The last time he had seen Ishizu, Marik and Odion had been at the Pharaoh's ceremonial battle. Yugi was truly appreciative of everything the Ishtars had done for the Pharaoh on his final journey home. They had proved to his loyal servants indeed.

"Come look Yugi," Ishizu gestured to the desk where something appeared to be glowing faintly.

Yugi's eyes widened. It couldn't be!

"The Millennium Items! But I thought they were lost when the temple collapsed! How did you manage to get them Ishizu?"

"We sent an excavation team to the site after the incident and we were finally successful in retrieving them. The Millennium Puzzle had shattered, but we were able to piece it back together using state of the art technology. The rest of the items were quite intact, thankfully. Professor van Allen here put in a request for them to be sent to the Department of Archaeology at Domino College, he was very interested in studying them for his research."

"But Ishizu, is it safe? You know the dangers that these items can bring!"

"Relax Yugi," Ishizu smiled, her dark blue eyes shining kindly. "There's no danger left. The Pharaoh sealed away the power of the 7 Millennium Items after he defeated Zorc Necrophades for good. They are just relics of the past now. They cannot bring any harm to mankind."

"That's right Yugi. We must seek to understand our relationship with our past, so that we may never repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. The Millennium Items are an important piece of our collective history, who knows what mysteries they hold? I intend to study them for the valuable insights that they can provide into our past, and for what they might tell us about the future," The professor smiled proudly. "Ishizu tells me that you once shared a close connection with the Millennium Puzzle, is it true that it used to contain the spirit of a 5000-year-old pharaoh?"

"It's true Professor! His name was Atem, and he became one of my closest friends." Yugi replied enthusiastically, clutching his beloved Millennium Puzzle in his hands. The puzzle used to glow whenever the Pharaoh's spirit took over this body, but it remained cool to the touch now, a reminder that his friend was no longer with him.

"Fascinating! You must tell me all about your adventures some day!" Yugi nodded his head gleefully. It would take awhile to explain everything to the Professor but he was sure the Professor would appreciate it. He was anxious to share his stories about the Pharaoh. While he had the full support of his grandpa and friends, the rest of the world was not that open to the truth. Despite his years of experience and expertise in the field, Professor Hawkins was still mocked for being a lunatic whenever he brought up Duel Monster's connection with Ancient Egypt. Even Kaiba who had experienced the power of the Shadow Games first-hand had fervently denied that there was any shred of truth to those events.

"Uhh…Professor van Allen, there's something I need to tell you…" Yugi was reminded of the reason why he had consulted the professor in the first place. He gulped. The professor wouldn't get mad at him missing a few days of school, would he?

"Go on, what is it Yugi?"

Yugi bit his lip and handed the professor his invitation to the KC Grand Prix 2.0. "I wouldn't be missing that many classes!" he added hastily. "It's only two weeks and I'll be sure to do all my readings and check in with you regularly."

"Hmm…duel monsters eh," Professor van Allen slid his glasses down his nose as he scrutinized the invitation carefully. "Well, I always knew this day would come. What did I expect when the King of Games himself is one of my students? It looks like Mr. Kaiba invited some of the very best duelists in the world. You might have a tough time defending that title! Go for it Yugi, you have my support."

"Thank you, Professor! I didn't realize you were into dueling!"

"Why back in the day I was a pretty decent duelist if I say so myself," chuckled the professor. "Even made it to the national semi-finals while I was in college ha! Maximillian Pegasus himself invited me to participate in his Duelist Kingdom, but I had to turn it down to work on my dissertation. Actually Yugi, I think I will come down and support you, nothing like a good duel to get your blood racing!"

"I won't let you down, Professor!"

"Best of luck Yugi," Ishizu smiled. "The Pharaoh would have been so proud to see you now."

"Thanks, Ishizu! Will you be staying for the tournament?"

"Sadly no," Ishizu shook her head. "Kaiba sent us an invite, on account of our participation in Battle City but unfortunately there is much work to do. The Pharaoh may have left us, but our duty as his tomb keepers lives on! We must ensure that humanity understands the ramifications of what happened 5000 years ago."

"That's a real pity. Please say hi to Marik and Odion for me Ishizu."

"Gladly. Yugi, I am heading to the Domino Museum before my flight back to Cairo, would you like to join me?"

As the pair made their way to the Domino Museum, Yugi reminisced about all that had happened. It had all started from the moment he finally assembled the Millennium Puzzle. T _he person who solves this puzzle will have their wish granted._ It was all thanks to the Pharaoh that he had everything he could have ever wanted! ' _At that time, I was very lonely and all I wanted was to have some true friends. It was the Pharaoh who brought me closer to Joey, Tristan, and Tea. And he taught me the most important lesson of all, to have courage and faith in myself even when the odds are not in my favor!'_

"Yugi, this was where we first met, remember?" Ishizu paused in the middle of the exhibition hall. It was the very hall where Yugi had first encountered the stone tablets depicting the 3 Egyptian Gods which would later serve the Pharaoh in regaining his memories. Though the tablets were no longer there, the memory of the day would stay with Yugi forever. The Pharaoh had been so desperate to uncover any clues to his identity and that had been their first major breakthrough.

"Yeah! That was when you first us told us about the Pharaoh's destiny! It's been years now, though it feels as though it was just yesterday."

"I am glad I was able to meet the Pharaoh in real life. It is truly an honor to have been able to serve my king," Ishizu's lips curled into a smile. "I hope you are happy wherever you are my dear Pharaoh."

"Ishizu…do you think its possible for spirits from the other world to contact us?" Yugi asked tentatively. He thought back to the bad dream he had had where the Pharaoh had come to warn him of an impending danger. It had been nagging at him ever since he saw the Millennium Items on the Professor's desk.

"Why do you ask Yugi?"

"Well…I had a dream about the Pharaoh. He was trying to warn me about the return of the Shadow Games…when I saw the Millennium Items today, it reminded me of that. But…it could have just been a dream…I'm not sure what to make of it"

"I don't know Yugi…in my culture, we take dreams very seriously. This could be an omen that something bad is coming our way…But worry not, I shall look into this when I return to Egypt. You have nothing to fear. The Pharaoh defeated the dark one when he entered the World of Memories. I do not think the darkness will be returning anytime soon."

"The Millennium Items…"

"Hold no power now," Ishizu said firmly, resting a reassuring hand on Yugi's shoulders. "I assure you there this nothing to be afraid of, Yugi. The forces of evil can try, but they will not succeed! Pharaoh Atem saw to it himself that they would never return."

A thought suddenly occurred to Yugi which made his blood run cold.

_The Pharaoh has no memories at all of whatever happened after he defeated Zorc. He left Earth's timeline completely 5000 years ago. That's a long time…What if the Evil found a way back after he was gone?_

* * *

Something felt strange in the air as Yugi and Ishizu made their way back to the university. Yugi shivered slightly, he couldn't quite place his finger on what was wrong and he did not like it.

' _Stop worrying Yugi, Ishizu already said there is nothing to fear.'_

A stray sheet of paper fluttered in the air and landed near Yugi's feet. He bent to pick it up.

" **Millennium Items Finally Recovered from Temple Ruins after a Year of Excavation Work"** read the headline of the newspaper clipping.

It belonged to the Professor! What was it doing here?

The hallway was oddly quiet where it had been bustling with the comings and goings of the university's students an hour ago. Yugi felt Ishizu stiffen beside him.

The door to the professor's office had been left slightly ajar. A few stray sheets of paper were scattered around the door.

"Professor van Allen? Are you there?" Yugi called, goose-bumps crawling down his skin.

No answer.

"Professor?"

"PROFESSOR!" Instinct led Yugi to kick open the door. His stomach had tied itself up into knots. He had a very bad feeling about this…

The professor lay sprawled on the floor, loose papers strewn all around his unconscious form. Yugi rushed to his side in alarm.

"Are you alright?!"

"Yugi…." The professor grimaced. He looked worse for wear. "I…I tried to stop t…them….T…T…They wouldn't listen. I..I'm s..so…sorry."

"What happened Professor?" Ishizu demanded as they helped the professor to his chair. Professor van Allen winced and clutched at his left eye. It was bruised purple and the lenses of his glasses bore an ugly crack. From the looks of it, he had taken a nasty beating.

"The Millennium Items…they took it!"

"WHO TOOK IT?"

"I…I don't know. They left this…they seemed to know you Yugi," the professor let out a resigned sigh as he handed Yugi a crumpled note.

_A pleasure to meet you, Yugi Muto. With Pharaoh Atem gone, no one can protect you now. The 7 Millennium Items are finally ours! Darkness shall soon befall humanity to claim the souls of those who have sinned. How does your heart weigh against the Feather of Ma'at*? We shall see…see you at the Grand Prix. History shall be rewritten._

_-Scorpios_

"I've never heard of this Scorpios," Ishizu scowled as she snatched the note from Yugi's hand. She was very protective of her friends and did not take lightly to this threat. "But whatever they are up to, we must put a stop to this."

"They have the Millennium Items Ishizu! What could they possibly want with it?" Yugi was beginning to panic. He felt sick as he slid into the chair next to the professor. Variations of doomsday scenarios swirled in his mind, sending a pounding headache ricocheting through his mind. It was no ordinary thugs who were behind this, and he was sure they had motivations that ran deeper than money. The people who stole the Millennium Items had known about the Pharaoh! That meant they knew about the powers the items had once contained. They were sure to be trying to use them access the powers of the shadow realms! It could put the world in peril. The Pharaoh's ominous words echoed in his mind.

' _I fear the fate of mankind may very well be in your hands.'_

"I don't know Yugi…but if it is the return of the Shadow Games they seek, then they will never succeed!" Yugi felt Ishizu's protective arm around his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Yugi," Professor van Allen sighed. "I should have tried to stop those thugs. But…they were so fast. I didn't even get the chance to see their faces."

"It's not your fault Professor."

Yugi swallowed hard. The Pharaoh had tried to warn him! He only hoped that Ishizu was right and the powers of the Millennium Items had been sealed off, never to be accessed by mortals again.

Scorpios was trying to stage something at the Grand Prix. They must have had something up their sleeves or they wouldn't have been so bold as to reveal their plans! It had to be some kind of a trap…He had to warn Kaiba before the tournament began.

Yugi gritted his teeth. The Shadow Games must never return to humanity.

End of Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The hearts of the deceased were said to be measured against the Feather of Ma'at in the Egyptian Underworld. Ma'at is the Egyptian goddess of truth, justice and morality and her feather symbolizes ethical and moral principles such as truth and honor which Egyptian citizens were supposed to live by.
> 
> Also, after I had planned out my story, I realized that the Feather of Ma'at was mentioned in Yugioh GX though in GX it is used in a somewhat different context. To prevent any confusion, they are not related. The events of GX never happen in this timeline. The villains in my fic have some very definite Ancient Egyptian connections (which you will see more of as the story goes on) and I've always really enjoyed reading up on Egyptian mythology so I will definitely be trying to incorporate more of that into the story!


	3. The One with the Blue Eyes

"Alright Yugi, here we are," Solomon Muto said cheerily as they pulled up in front of the Kaiba Land entrance. He shuddered a little. The sight of the theme park brought back bad memories of his first encounter with Seto Kaiba. Though he had to concede that the older and admittedly more unpalatable Kaiba brother had grown more amenable with time. It heartened him to know that his grandson had been a positive influence on one of the world's richest CEOs.

"Thanks, Gramps!"

"Thank you, Mr. Muto!" Joey, Tea, and Tristan chorused.

"You kids have fun now. It's not fair, you kids get all the good tournaments. Back in my day, we didn't have holograms, Duel Monsters was played on top of tables and we even had to keep track of our Life Points using a paper and pen! It must sound so prehistoric to you right now hahaha!" Solomon laughed as he helped his grandson, Joey, Tea, and Tristan to unpack their belongings from the car boot. Joey flinched. Mr Muto wasn't planning on crashing the tournament again was he?

"Duel Monsters isn't just about the holograms Gramps. It's about playing with heart!"

"You're right Yugi. I've taught you well." Solomon placed his hands over his heart. "Now do you have all your school work with you? Even the King of Games has to make sure he doesn't miss out on school you know," Solomon's voice took on a mildly threatening edge.

"Huh? Ehhh…of course I won't, Gramps! Professor van Allen already sent me all the readings for the next two weeks, I…I'll read them during my breaks!" Yugi brushed away a drop of sweat that had beaded up on his brow. Ever since he had entered university, his grandpa had been so hard on him about his schoolwork. It was all "Yugi, you can't run off from school to take part in some tournament. What about your grades? Think about your future!" Grandpa had said nary a word about the tournaments he had taken part in while he was in high school!

"Good," said Solomon Muto firmly. "One more thing Yugi…"

"What is it, Gramps?"

"Kick Kaiba's butt for me!" Solomon cackled, brushing away tears of mirth from his eyes.

"Hah Kaiba's mine! He's gonna be sorry he ever challenged me!" Joey butted in. "I'mma make that asshole eat his words! Leave the ass-kicking to me!"

"Joey!" hissed Tea, gesturing to the security guard at the entrance who was giving them a nasty look. "Not so loud or Kaiba's gonna be the one kicking your ass out of this tournament."

"Alright Gramps, we're gonna head in now, I'm gonna make you proud!" Yugi gave his grandfather a big hug. He felt incredibly grateful to have Solomon for a grandfather. Not only was Solomon always very supportive of his dreams, but he was the one who had first taught him how to duel. Yugi could still remember the countless hours they had spent on the kitchen table practicing dueling strategies when he first started getting into Duel Monsters. Solomon would not give up until Yugi had finally succeeded in defeating him.

Two imposing Blue Eyes White Dragons loomed over them as they entered the gates of the theme park. Kaiba had really gone overboard with redecorating this time!

"Gee…Kaiba should just change the name of this place to Blue Eyes White Dragon land," mumbled Tristan snarkily as they passed yet another statue of the formidable dragon.

"We should really get to Kaiba's office guys, remember what we discussed." Now that they had entered the tournament grounds, the seriousness of the situation was beginning to hit Yugi. There had been radio silence from Scorpios ever since the incident at the Professor's office. The police had been contacted, but they were still unable to track down the location of the missing items. Ishizu had returned to Egypt, promising to dig up any information she could find on the shadowy group but to no avail. There were no records of Scorpios whatsoever. It was as if the group never existed.

"Yeah Yuge, this Scorpios guy sounds real nasty. But we've taken down much worse than him before!" Joey gritted his teeth. Scorpios had to be stopped at all costs. He wasn't sure what was going on exactly, but from what Yugi had told him, it sounded bad. Those punks had stolen the Millennium Items from Yugi's professor. They were surely up to no good. Scorpios might have some sort of evil plan to take over the world but Joey Wheeler was going to thwart it!

"Hey watch it!" Joey shouted as a hooded figure bumped into his side.

"Ouch! Be careful guys!" Yugi winced as another figure knocked into him.

The theme park was filled to the brim. Duelists from all over the world had arrived for the chance to duel against the current Top 8 for the chance to be crowned the King of Games. The theme park swarmed with reporters who flitted from contender to contender like busy bees, getting the latest scoop from the cream of the crop of the dueling world. Excited fans called out fervently to their favorite duelists, requesting autographs and wishing them best of luck in the finals. There was hardly any room to breathe. Yugi had to hand it to Seto Kaiba. The man sure knew how to stage a good PR opportunity.

"Heheheheh, you'll regret what you've done to us Pharaoh," came a vaguely familiar high-pitched voice.

"We'll see how you duel without your cards!" came another familiar voice, though this one was deeper and raspier in tone.

"My deck!" Yugi's hand flew to his pocket. "It's gone!"

"Mine too!" cried Joey.

The two hooded figures sped off from the crowd and disappeared into the distance. It had to be the thieves!

"After them!"

_Meanwhile, a shadowy figure looked up from her spot on the platform of the KC Obelisk Tower. From her vantage point, she had seen everything._

_"Low lives," she muttered under her breath as she propped herself up from her spot against the railing. She despised little rats like those two. No respectable duelist would resort to stealing another duelist's cards before a tournament. Especially not the cards of the reigning Duel Monsters champion and World Number 3! Those two twerps deserved a little lesson in honor._

_She cracked her knuckles. "Time for a little warm-up duel."_

* * *

"Alright, Rex, did you get Wheeler's cards?" screeched Weevil Underwood as he and his partner in crime Rex Raptor rounded the bend near the Death-T Virtual Theatre. He tugged down at his hood, revealing a crop of shockingly bright green hair.

The alleyway was dark and empty. Perfect! They were sure to have lost Yugi and friends by now.

"Yeah, you got Yugi's?" snickered Rex as they chucked their hoodies into the nearby trash bin. "That will show them!"

"We have all their rare cards now heheheheh, we'll win the KC Grand Prix for sure!"

"We'll make them pay for what they've done to us! Yugi Muto and Joey Wheeler bah! They're a pair of dorks! They don't deserve to be the top duelists! We do!"

"You should take a good look at yourselves before you call other people dorks," came a voice from the shadows.

"Heh? Did you hear that Rex?" Weevil pushed his thick yellow-framed glasses up his nose.

The figure stepped into the light. Weevil and Rex narrowed their eyes but their stance relaxed once they saw who the voice belonged to.

It was just a girl! And one who was quite slight in build at that, though she wore a duel disk strapped menacingly around her wrist.

"Gee Weevil, it must be one of our fangirls! If you wanted our autographs, why didn't you just ask?" chortled Rex as he heaved a sigh of relief internally. Thank god for that. He had thought it was one of Kaiba's security guards. This runt was no threat at all!

"Please, you two flatter yourself. Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood. Former regional champions no less. I had thought you two would have much more honor than that! Shame on you for stealing another duelist's deck." the girl's tone had a sharp edge to it. Her bright blue eyes glowed fiercely in the shadows.

"Whoah whoah, what are you talking about?" Weevil took a step back. Drat! And they were so close to getting away with it! Though, what could this girl do about it? From the looks of it, she was probably just another participant in the KC Grand Prix 2.0. Unless she was related to Seto Kaiba himself, she held no power over them whatsoever!

"Don't play dumb with me Weevil. I saw you and Rex knock into Yugi Muto and Joey Wheeler. You stole their decks!" The girl took a step closer. She seemed much more imposing than her slight frame would suggest.

"Ngghh!" Rex and Weevil backed up against the wall.

"So what if we took their cards? You wouldn't understand what Yugi Muto and Joey Wheeler did to us!" Weevil spat.

"Yeah! They ruined our lives! They took everything we had away from us. We were living the high life before those clowns took in and stole our championship titles. We have nothing now!" Rex retorted angrily.

"Hmph," the girl snorted. "Blaming others for your own mistakes, how pathetic. But since I'm in a good mood today, I'll duel you two for the decks you stole. If I win, you're gonna give those cards back to me. No one has to get hurt."

"Yeah right, missy! As if we'll let you have the best cards in the game! And what makes you think you can win against us? Do you even know how to duel?" Rex laughed. Who was she to challenge Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood, former Duel Monsters regional champions and once members of the elite secret organization Doma? They would even have made it to the previous KC Grand Prix if not for that pink-haired punk Zigfried. She didn't stand a chance.

"Yeah go home!" Weevil joined in. "We don't have time for your games! We have a tournament to win! Plus you can't make us give up Yugi and Wheeler's cards so easily. We went to a lot of trouble to get those!"

"What if I throw in some of my own cards?" she brandished a set of glossy cards in front of Weevil and Rex. Their eyes widened in shock.

"Where did you get those?" Rex exclaimed. His jaw hung open. Those were some extremely rare and powerful cards that the girl held in her hands!

"From defeating losers like you," she smirked, brushing a few stray strands of silver out of her eyes. The intensity behind them sent shudders down Rex and Weevil's spines. She was unnervingly confident. "What do you say Rex and Weevil? Yugi and Joey's decks plus my rarest cards against your both your best cards? Not a bad deal, if I say so myself."

"You're on! You might have some good cards but you're just a girl! What damage can you do? Plus once I defeat you, my deck will be stronger than ever!" Weevil snapped. His brows knitted together in fury. This girl didn't know who she was up against! He had never seen her in tournaments before. That could only mean she was some washed-up no-name duelist. Amateur! Why it would only take a couple of minutes to wipe that smug look off her face.

"Just a girl?" she mocked. "You've just made the biggest mistake of your life Weevil Underwood."

Their duel disks beeped to life.

"LET"S DUEL!"

* * *

Yugi, Joey, Tea, and Tristan raced down the streets of Kaiba Land, weaving their way through the thick crowd.

"They couldn't have gotten far!" Tea called out.

"This way," Yugi gestured towards the Death-T Virtual Theatre. He shared a strong bond with his monsters and could feel his Dark Magician calling out to him. He gritted his teeth. Those two thieves wouldn't get away with it!

_'This could be the work of Scorpios! We mustn't let them get away!'_ thought Yugi.

"You two have no monsters to protect you now! Alright Alexandrite Dragon, attack Rex's Life Points directly! Luster Dragon, finish Weevil off!"

"Heh?" Joey's feet skidded to a stop as they arrived in front of the theatre. Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor were on their knees. In front of them stood a silver-haired girl who towered over them imposingly. She looked strangely familiar, though he couldn't quite place his finger on where he had seen her before.

The girl grinned triumphantly as she retracted her duel disk.  _Piece of cake!_

**Rex Raptor - LP: 0**

**Weevil Underwood - LP: 0**

She had won the duel!

"Hah! Who's just a girl now? I'll be taking your Insect Queen and your Tyrant Dragon! They'll make a fine addition to my collection," she snatched the cards from Rex and Weevil's outstretched hands. The pair were much too shell-shocked to put up any resistance. "And it's time to hand over those cards that you stole!"

"Oh? Perfect timing," she smiled as she laid eyes on Yugi and friends. "I believe these two twerps have something that belongs to you!"

So Weevil and Rex were the ones who had stolen their decks! Yugi heaved a sigh of relief. Thank god it was just one of their shenanigans and not Scorpios. Otherwise, the consequences could have been dire!

The girl hauled Weevil and Rex up by their collars. The gang blinked. She didn't look like she had that kind of strength within her small frame. "Apologise!" she ordered, her long silver hair billowing threateningly around her.

"S…S…Sorry," Weevil and Rex mustered and pitifully handed back the ill-gotten cards. The girl released her grip.

"If I catch you doing anything funny again during the tournament, you will be very sorry," she hissed, blue eyes glowing dangerously.

"Uhh, we won't do it again!" Weevil and Rex murmured and promptly took off down the street.

"It's alright!" Yugi smiled, looking at his deck appreciatively. "Thank you, miss! I don't know what we would have done if we lost our decks!"

"No sweat, those two won't be bothering you anytime soon," the girl said, dusting herself off. She was dressed rather casually, in a purple checkered shirt and cut-off denim shorts. Nothing from her appearance seemed to suggest she could have pulled off the feat she had just accomplished.

"Plus, it's a pleasure to finally meet the great Yugi Muto and Joey Wheeler!" The girl had taken on a much friendlier expression as compared to when she was dueling Weevil and Rex.

Yugi blushed slightly, he wasn't used to being complimented. It was usually the Pharaoh whom people termed as "great". He quite enjoyed being regular Yugi Muto, to be honest.

"Heh, don't mention it! We love meeting our fans, right Yuge?" Joey swiped at his nose smugly. Tea rolled her eyeballs. Joey could such a show-off! Especially when pretty girls were around.

"Oh, where are my manners? I'm Kira Stieber, nice to meet you," she extended a pale arm.

"Nice to meet you, Kira!" Yugi shook her hand. Now that he thought about it, he was sure he had seen her somewhere before. "Are you taking part in the KC Grand Prix?"

"Sure am!" she grinned, gesturing to her duel disk. "Hope to see you two in the finals."

"Hah! You have spirit, I like that," Joey beamed. "It's so nice to see the next generation of up and coming duelists! Plus you totally kicked Weevil and Rex's butts!"

Kira smiled sheepishly. Yugi could tell she was not used to being complimented.

"Where are you from Kira?" Tristan asked. "You don't sound like you are from around here."

"Oh…I'm from up north. I flew all the way here to take part in the tournament."

"Did you come alone?"

"Yeah. I don't really know the dueling scene around here…"

"You should join us if you don't know anyone," Yugi offered. "We owe you big time for helping us to get our decks back!"

The girl's blue eyes widened and she appeared to consider the offer thoughtfully.

"That's very kind of you, but I'm afraid I can't," she shook her head apologetically. "Can't exactly be seen hanging around the King of Games and World Number 3 duellist before the tournament officially starts, can I? The press will eat that up! I came here to compete in the tournament on my own merit and I won't let anything detract away from that."

"That's a real shame Kira, but thanks again for your help today! I guess we'll see you around? From the looks of it, I'm sure you will do very well in the qualifiers!" Yugi smiled. He was looking forward to seeing how far Kira would go in the tournament. She certainly had the skills and resolve, though she seemed to have a rather nasty competitive streak within her. While he appreciated Kira's help in retrieving his deck, he wasn't quite sure he would have dealt with Weevil and Rex the way she had.

"See you in the tournament Yugi and Joey!" Kira smiled, her blue eyes twinkling as she took off down the street.

Yugi frowned. There was something about those blue eyes and silver hair which were definitely very familiar.

* * *

"Roland! What's the status of all the duellists? Any strange incidents?" Kaiba questioned curtly, causing his chief of staff to blanch. The opening ceremony was in a few hours and Kaiba's stress levels were at an all-time high. Ever since he had received the Scorpios threat, he had taken extra precautions to make sure the tournament area was extra secure. Those punks would rue the day they decided to challenge Seto Kaiba!

"Everything looks fine sir! Although…we had a minor altercation between 3 duellists awhile ago near the Death-T Virtual Theatre."

"Show me," Kaiba demanded. At the wave of his hand, the CCTV footage began to play on screen.

"It was Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor sir. And another duelist named Kira Stieber."

"Hmph, I shouldn't have invited those two clowns to my tournament. They are such a disgrace to the dueling world! And I've never heard of this Kira Stieber before. Shame on Weevil and Rex if an amateur was able to defeat them so easily!" Kaiba's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the footage. From the angle of the camera, he couldn't exactly make out the girl's features but he could see that she possessed a shock of bright silver hair. Very unusual, he would have remembered her for sure if they had crossed paths previously, but he did not recall seeing her in any of the recent Duel Monsters tournaments.

"Zoom in on her." Though he hated to admit it, this Kira Stieber was actually pretty good. Weevil and Rex had played some pretty powerful cards but she had managed to maneuver around their strategies rather effortlessly. She played a lot of well-timed trap cards and from the looks of it, she had a bunch of strong dragon cards as well. Kaiba scowled. He was not fond of other duelists who used dragon-type cards. After all, he was the only one worthy to wield their power! He made a mental note to look into her profile later.

"What should I do sir?" Roland asked nervously, silently cursing himself for being so stupid. He should have increased the security around the premises! He knew how stressed Mr. Kaiba was with the preparations for the tournament and didn't want to get on his bad side.

"Nothing," snapped Kaiba dismissively. "Underwood and Raptor are not worth our time. As for the girl, she put them in their place, didn't she? We can afford to let this one slide. Don't let the press get wind of this. Anything else Roland?"

"Yes actually…Yugi Muto and Joey Wheeler are here to see you, sir. They are waiting outside the office."

"Hmm? Show them to their rooms. The opening ceremony is in a few hours, they should get ready for that."

"No sir, they insist on meeting you personally." Roland prepared himself for his short-fused boss's verbal assault which was soon to follow.

"Fine, bring them in. I know what this is about." Kaiba folded his arms across his chest. Yugi and Joey sure knew how to get on his nerves. "They have five minutes."

"Nice office Rich Boy! Couldn't you dial back a lil on the Blue Eyes White Dragon details though? It's a little too much, even for you," snorted Joey as they entered the office.

"Enough Wheeler! I am in no mood to deal with you today!" the scowl on Kaiba's face was enough to make any mere mortal quiver. "Make it quick," Kaiba gestured to the empty seats in front of his desk.

"Kaiba…" began Yugi tentatively.

"No."

"You didn't even hear me out!" Yugi complained, his violet eyes widening in protest.

"I've heard enough of your nonsense over the past week! I am not stopping the tournament just because some freak hacked into my system and sent you a threatening note! Scorpios is just trying to ruin my tournament and destroy KaibaCorp! I have half a mind that Pegasus is behind this himself!" Kaiba slammed his fist down on the table, sending the loose sheets of paper flying everywhere.

Yugi slid the crumpled up note across the table. Kaiba merely glowered at it as though he were willing it to catch aflame spontaneously.

"I'm telling you it's not Pegasus Kaiba! Scorpios has the Millennium Items and they aren't playing around! Look, I know you don't believe in magic but this is serious! We don't know what will happen if they manage to use the powers of the Millennium Items to access the Shadow Realm!"

"The Shadow Realm doesn't exist*. It's just some hocus-pocus mind trick! I won't risk my company's reputation over those punks." Kaiba growled. His patience was wearing thin. "Grow up Yugi, I can't believe you still believe in those fairy tales."

"Listen, you jerk! Whatever Yuge is saying is true! Someone's got da Millennium Items and they ain't joking around. We can't let them get their way!" Joey huffed. Why he wanted to punch Kaiba in his smug  _rich_  face! Couldn't he see that the problem was bigger than him and his stupid company?

"What, are you going to tell me there is the spirit of an ancient Pharaoh living in your Millennium Puzzle, Yugi? Stop with the nonsense, that's just a bunch of bullshit and you know it. There's no 'spirit' inside those items! Which is precisely why I gave Ishizu Ishtar the money to dig them out from the ground! Magic doesn't exist! When will you learn to accept that Yugi? Or maybe the reason you want me to stop this tournament so badly is that you're scared that I will win you and take your title for myself!"

"Kaiba!" Yugi jumped to his feet. He had enough! "This is serious. Scorpios must be stopped!"

"That I can agree with," Kaiba fumed. "We've put measures in place to reinforce the security system during the Grand Prix. No one goes in or out without me knowing about it! Scorpios has nowhere to hide. I will smoke those clowns out myself. No one messes with KaibaCorp and gets away with it!"

"Alright…I guess I can't convince you, Kaiba. But we have to take down Scorpios." Yugi sighed in resignation. There was no arguing with the older Kaiba brother. They would just have to track down Scorpios during the tournament and make sure nobody got hurt! But how could you track down someone without a face? Or someone who knew virtually nothing about for that matter?

"Relax, those punks will get what is coming to them. They'll show themselves soon enough. Besides, I think you should be worrying more about whether you can hold on to your precious little title."

Yugi sighed again. He hoped Kaiba had a good plan to defeat Scorpios because he was fresh out of ideas.

End of Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Personally, one of my biggest gripes with Yugioh is the lack of strong female characters to root for. Dark Magician Girl existed pretty much only for fanservice, and Tea was relegated to the role of a cheerleader in the anime. While Mai had a strong character arc in Duelist Kingdom, I felt the show didn't deal with her post-Battle City PTSD adequately and her character arc was kinda just left dangling after Waking the Dragons. Considering that she played a pivotal role in helping Yugi to grow into the character he is, she should have totally been at the ceremonial battle. Given her strong chemistry with Joey, the show could also have spent more time developing their relationship, but alas Yugioh doesn't do romance (that's why we have to resort to fanfiction haha). Also, it really pissed me off that hardly any of Mai's victories were shown on screen! C'mon Yugioh, females can be strong duelists too!
> 
> My intention behind writing my OC Kira was to create a strong female duelist whom people could root for but yet isn't "perfect" or ostensibly "good". If my execution has been lacking thus far, please do let me know. I would hate to have her turn into a complete Mary Sue. That being said, I do believe there is a place for Mary Sues in fanfiction. All fiction supposed to be aspirational after all, and if it is empowering for us to create or find solace in a character who represents an idealized version of ourselves, then why not?


	4. Let the Games Begin!

Seto Kaiba adjusted his tie, frowning at his reflection in the mirror. He couldn't get his tie to be perfectly straight, which bugged him greatly. All his life, he had been a grade-a perfectionist. Everything in the universe had its place and order and when things deviated from that order, it stressed him to no end.

"Mokuba, is everything ready?" He spoke into the speaker cleverly disguised into the collar of his charcoal gray business suit. It was made of the finest Italian wool and he had it specially commissioned for this event. Not that Kaiba was a vain man but millions of people around the world would be tuning in for the live broadcast of his KC Grand Prix 2.0 and he wanted to make an indelible impression, especially after the disaster that was the first KC Grand Prix.

" _Seto! What is the meaning of this? You look like you just crawled out of the garbage can. How are we supposed to meet our investors with you dressed like that? Didn't I tell you that you must always look your best? Get out of my sight! Go put on something more presentable at once!" his adoptive father Gozaburo Kaiba's icy snarl reverberated in his ear._

"Hmph, even after he's long gone the old man is still torturing me," Kaiba muttered in disgust as he snapped on his cuff-links. They were shaped like his favorite Blue Eyes White Dragons, the eyes embellished with a single brilliant cut sapphire each. Imbeciles like Joey Wheeler might mock his fascination with the great beast but that was only because they did not understand the power the dragon held. To Kaiba, the Blue Eyes White Dragon was the physical manifestation of might and strength. It was one of the most powerful cards in Duel Monsters, second only to the God Cards themselves!

_And they represented hope too._ When they were children, Mokuba had secretly slipped him a drawing of the Blue Eyes White Dragon after a particularly grueling day of Gozaburo's militant drilling. At that time, he had been on the edge of giving up but the drawing had given him the willpower he needed to persevere. Little Seto had desperately needed a lifeline to cling on to, or his soul would surely have been crushed by Gozaburo' vicious ways.  _The Blue Eyes White Dragon saved his life_. From that moment, Kaiba had come to develop a great reverence for the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Not that he expected anyone else to understand. How could they unless they had experienced first-hand the horrors that Gozaburu had inflicted upon him and Mokuba?

"We're good to go, Seto! Whenever you are ready bro!" Mokuba replied cheerily on the other line. Though he would never admit it. Kaiba was secretly rather jealous of his brother's upbeat attitude towards life. It was no small feat being the vice-president of a multi-national corporation like KaibaCorp at his age, but the teenage boy never seemed to have nary a care in the world no matter how stressful or dire the situation at hand might seem. When Kaiba had informed Mokuba about the rather nasty incident involving Scorpios, Mokuba had merely replied: "We'll kick their ass back to where they belong!"

"Alright, stand by." Mentally rehearsing his script, Kaiba stepped onto the platform. The platform was connected to the stage of his Blue Eyes Arena, the largest in-door dueling arena in the country. He intended to enter with a bang.

"One last thing Seto…"

"Huh?" Had he forgotten something? A bubble of panic began to well up in his chest. Nothing could go wrong today! There was too much on the line.

"Break a leg! You're gonna kill it out there!"

"Thanks, Mokuba," Kaiba smirked, though he was inwardly grateful for his little brother's encouragement. Of course, he hadn't forgotten anything! Everything would go according to plan, He already knew he was the best.

His field of vision was assaulted by the bright white lights as he made his ascent to the grand stage.

_Showtime._

"Kaiba! Kaiba! Kaiba!" the crowd cheered rousingly. He would make sure the opening ceremony was a smashing success! That would show anyone who had the nerve to try and take down KaibaCorp.

"Alright! And now time for a little speech by the CEO of KaibaCorp and one of the participants to beat in the KC Grand Prix 2.0 himself, ladies and gentlemen let's give it up for Mr. Seto Kaiba!" Mokuba announced brightly into the microphone, having appointed himself the Master of Ceremonies for the tournament. Kaiba thought his brother was a natural at being in the limelight. Public appearances came easily to the chirpy boy who had a natural charisma on stage, unlike Kaiba, who loathed public speaking and tried to avoid it at all cost. But as the popular adage went, fake it till you make it.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the KC Grand Prix 2.0! Why do we duel? For fame? For glory? Or is it to face our opponents in the ultimate challenge so that we may emerge stronger than ever before? Whatever our reasons, when we enter the duel rink and stake our fate on our cards, one thing is for certain – we will become better versions of who we are than we were yesterday!

Today, we kick off the greatest tournament the world has ever seen! We have gathered the best and brightest talent of the dueling world in a duel to the death for the chance to face the Top 8 in the semi-finals and obtain the chance to be crowned the King of Games! Duelists will face off against the new and improved KC DuelTek 1000 and only the top 16 will proceed to the next round where they will face off for the chance to advance to the semi-finals. Be warned, this may the hardest challenge that you have faced yet! With that, concentrate, play your cards well and don't be afraid to win. May the best duelist emerge victorious!"

_That should get them fired up._

Kaiba surveyed the stage suspiciously as he made his way down. Scorpios was amongst the crowd, somewhere. His eye landed on Pegasus, the CEO of Industrial Illusions and his long-time adversary, who responded with a cheeky wink. Kaiba groaned in annoyance. He had invited Pegasus here so he could keep an eye on him and make sure he wasn't up to no good. He wasn't quite sure what that man's deal was. Pegasus had gone as far as to kidnap his brother in an attempt to take over KaibaCorp but whenever they interacted face to face, Kaiba could have sworn that Pegasus was trying to flirt with him. That Kaiba-boy nonsense! And his obsession with those god-awful toons! It made Kaiba's skin crawl.

Dealing with great uncertainty and fending off rivals and would-be usurpers of his position at KaibaCorp were certainly part and parcel of being a young CEO, but for once, could these idiots just leave him the fuck alone? As if it wasn't stressful enough trying to run a multi-billion-dollar empire with thousands of employees on top of dealing with their machinations. And could they at least be less theatrical for god's sake? Kaiba had faced his share of looney-tunes personalities over the years who were hell-bent of destroying his company. Pegasus, the Big Five, Alister, Dartz, Zigfried just to name a few off the top of his head. Not to mention Yugi's creepy friend Bakura who had tried to lure him to Egypt on a wild goose chase with a dusty old artifact! Sure, he was a pretty decent duelist but Kaiba wondered if it had been a good idea to invite him to the tournament in the first place…Just once, he would like to experience an iota of normalcy in his life.

And now he had to deal with this Scorpios scum…

His blood boiled. They would pay the ultimate price for trying to mess with him and his company! Seto Kaiba certainly did not appreciate being made a fool out of. He would find the proof he needed and get rid of the punks who were trying to ruin his reputation once and for all. In the meantime, he was going to keep a watchful eye on each and every one of the participants. He was sure the hacker was among the duelists gathered. It must be someone he knew who bore a grudge against him. But who? A disgruntled business associate? There were too many of those to even begin counting.

And this Scorpios even had the guts to challenge him to the ultimate duel! Fools, even if they made it through the qualifiers, he would make sure to crush them like the cockroaches they were in the semi-finals.

"Alright! I'm sure we all excited to get started!" Mokuba cheered into the microphone. "Let us now invite our duelists to the arena stage for the chance to face off against the KC DuelTek 1000 and prove their worth! Let the games begin!"

* * *

Yugi and Joey took their seats in the grandstand that was specially reserved for the Top 8 and which guaranteed them a bird's eye view of the qualifiers. The guards hadn't let Tristan and Tea in, so they unfortunately had to squeeze in with the rest of the bystanders in the less exclusive seats.

"Whoah this is so cool Yuge! Look at all da people cheering for us! Hello, my fangirls!" Joey leaned over the edge and waved to the roaring crowd.

"I wish I could enjoy it Joey, but we have a problem we need to solve at hand." Yugi sighed. Trust Joey to be so upbeat in the face of certain danger! He didn't mean to be a wet blanket but couldn't keep his mind off Scorpios no matter how hard he tried. He glanced at the crowd nervously. They had to be somewhere out there…

"Aw c'mon man, don't be a party pooper! Have fun a little. We deserved it!"

"Yugi, Joey, it's good to see you" a familiar British voice greeted them.

"Ryou! What are you doing here?" Yugi exclaimed, enveloping his old friend in a hug. This was certainly unexpected. He didn't even know Ryou had gotten back into the dueling scene after all that had happened.

"Well…Kaiba invited me to take part. I tried to explain to him that I don't duel much and it was all just the Spirit of the Ring, but he wasn't having any of that. Guess he still can't accept the truth huh," Ryou Bakura chuckled politely. "I felt maybe I should finally put the past behind me and I thought, what better way to do that than to prove myself as a real duelist? So here I am, I guess."

Yugi was glad to see his friend looking more relaxed than he had ever seen before. For the first time, Ryou looked…at peace, as though the darkness had finally been lifted from his soul. The malevolent Spirit of the Ring wouldn't be bothering him anymore.

"Welcome back Ryou," Yugi smiled. It was good to have the kind-hearted and soft-spoken Ryou Bakura back as opposed to the nefarious Yami Bakura who was intent on world destruction.

"YUUUGGGIII!"

"Huh? Rebecca? Waaah!" Yugi nearly stumbled over as Rebecca Hawkins launched a big bear hug on him. "I've missed you," she added cheekily, causing his cheeks to flush a bright crimson red. Yugi was thankful Tea wasn't around or she would have certainly flown into a jealous rage. He wasn't exactly sure what the situation was with Tea, but she had been dropping him not-so-subtle hints recently. He had been flirting with the idea of asking her out on a date…just after this tournament concluded.

"Long time no see," came a husky voice.

Yugi was surprised to the owner of the voice brooding over the edge of the mezzanine. He had been one of the only duelists to ever succeed in defeating the Pharaoh and would certainly prove to be a formidable opponent in the tournament.

"You're here too Raphael? No way!"

"Well…I've started getting back into the tournament circuits. Figured out I was making up for lost time. Plus, my Guardian Eatos was itching to battle. It's all thanks to you Yugi, and the Pharaoh. You helped me to find my love for dueling again. You have my gratitude." Raphael smiled. There was a certain gentleness about him now that he had overcome the darkness of the Orichalcos.

"Hey Yugi," came a sheepish voice. A pair of curious hazel eyes peered intently at him.

"Leon!"

"I'm here to defend the reputation of my family! After last time…Zigfried…" the young dueling prodigy's voice faded off, recalling the less than honorable incident that had transpired at the previous Grand Prix. He still felt kind of ashamed that his brother had resorted to such dirty tricks against the Kaiba family.

"It's alright Leon, you're here now. That's what matters. I'm sure your family is very proud of you." Yugi patted the young boy on his shoulders encouragingly. Kaiba could be harsh but he was sure he no longer held a grudge against the von Schroeders or he wouldn't have invited Leon to take part in his tournament.

Surveying the old friends gathered, Yugi felt the corners of his mouth lift into a smile despite his earlier worries. In a way, everyone here today was gathered because of him! The bonds of friendship that Duel Monsters had helped him to forge went beyond time and space itself.

Out of the corner of his eye, Yugi spied a familiar blond figure dressed in a purple vest and tall boots. She spotted him and waved, flipping her long flowing locks out of the way as she sauntered over.

"Joey, look! Mai's here!" Yugi elbowed his clueless friend in the waist, snapping him out of his daydream. "Let's go say hi."

"Heh? No way! Quick Yuge, how do I look?" Joey scrambled to smooth down his clothes and his wild blond hair. It had been too long since he had last seen Mai and he wanted to show her that he was a finally grown man now. Yugi shook his head and sighed. Joey was hopeless!

"Hi Yugi. Hi Joey, I'm back" Mai Valentine grinned confidently, gesturing towards her duel disk. "Hope you didn't miss me while I was gone because I was training myself to be the best duelist I could be. My Harpies are stronger and better than ever!"

"Hi Mai," Joey said nervously, suddenly feeling very weak in the knees…He racked his brains for something intelligent to say to the beautiful blonde, whom he hadn't seen in the past two years, but came up with nothing.  
 _'Mai's glowing!'_ thought Joey.  _'She's found her path again.'_

"Well Joey, I look forward to dueling you again. I think we didn't exactly end things off on a good note the last time. I'm looking forward to our re-match!" Mai added with a playful wink, sending Joey weak in the knees again.

"Uhhhh sure thing Mai! Can't wait to duel ya!" Joey laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head.

' _Oh Joey, when are you going to realize Mai is the one for you?'_ sighed Yugi. It was clear the two had a certain chemistry between them despite their age difference. Plus, it wasn't as if Joey didn't have the chance to make his move in the past. Joey could be so dense sometimes. Yugi wondered what went on inside his best's friends' head when he wasn't thinking about food or Duel Monsters. Clearly not much.

"Hi dweebs, I see you've changed your mind about the tournament after all," huffed Kaiba as he took his seat. The icy look on his face was enough to make hell freeze over.  
"Kaiba…I…I…"

"Hmph save it. Look, they're just about getting started," Kaiba gestured to the arena's stage, where duelists were starting to line up for the chance to duel against the KC DuelTek 1000. It was going to be a tough battle from the looks of it. A hundred of the best up and coming duelists were gathered but only 16 would make it through to the next round. The chosen 16 would then face off and the remaining 8 would move on towards a coveted spot in the semi-finals where they would get the chance to face off among the world's Top 8 duelists.

It would certainly be interesting to watch.

' _Plus, Wheeler's going to be a total laughing stock on live TV if he loses to one of these amateurs,'_ Kaiba smirked. Joey Wheeler was merely a second-rate duelist who relied on luck to win his duels. To think that luck had taken his as far to the finals of Duelist Kingdom and again to the semi-finals of Battle City! He couldn't be that lucky a  _third_  time. It wasn't as if Kaiba truly hated Joey but boy the mutt sure was fun to pick on. Nothing gave Kaiba greater pleasure than to see Joey make a fool of himself.

"Hey Joey, look it's Kira!" Yugi gestured to a silver-haired girl who was standing in line. Kira had adopted a relaxed stance as opposed to the other duelists who were twiddling their thumbs nervously. She didn't seem the slightest bit fazed by the notoriously hardcore dueling simulation. Kaiba frowned. Why was she so relaxed?

"Good luck Kira! Kick dat machine's ass like you kicked Rex and Weevil's!" Joey hooted, waving him arm excitedly at the girl.

' _As if this newbie is going to stand a chance against the KC DuelTek 1000! It's almost impossible to beat. That's part of the challenge. I'll like to see any of these wannabes get past it.'_

Hearing her name, Kira gazed up, smiled and waved back. Her eyes flashed a brilliant blue under the arena's glaring fluorescent lights.

Kaiba shot up in his seat. It was the girl who had defeated Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor singlehandedly with her dragons just hours before!

His face froze into an expression of stunned surprise as he felt his stomach tying up into a tight knot. He tried to speak but realized that his throat had gone completely dry. Around him, the raucous crowd began to fade out, leaving nothing in his field of vision except for those burning blue eyes which seem to pierce straight through to the core of his soul.

He knew her.

"Kisara," he mouthed as an inexplicable sense of deep sorrow grasped at his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think? Kaiba's such a complex character to write. On the surface, he can come off as being a jerk but underneath he does have a rich inner world and a lot of old traumas that he hasn't quite healed from. Plus is it any surprise he grew up to be a little crooked after the terrible childhood he had? Hopefully, I've managed to capture his essence accurately.


	5. Kira vs the KC DuelTek 1000!

The KC DuelTek was purported to be undefeatable. Last Christmas, the Kaiba brothers had announced the launch of their new and improved dueling simulation to the tune of a 10% increase in their stock price. It combined the strategies of the world's best duelists. Watching the live stream of the launch party from the TV, Kira hadn't been surprised that Seto Kaiba had included himself on that list.

"Look Kira! There's Seto Kaiba! Isn't he dreamy? He's so smart and handsome! Plus, he's my favorite duelist ever!" squealed her young sister Alini as the young CEO appeared on the TV screen. She clutched on to her Marshmallon plushie tightly - Marshmallon was one of Alini's favorite monsters. Kira had tried to convince her that Duel Monsters wasn't about who had the cutest monsters but rather, a game of strategy and wits but the younger Stieber sister remained unmoved.

"Alright Monkey, enough with the fangirling or its bedtime, you know how I feel about rich snobs!" Kira grinned toothily as she tickled her sister from behind.

"Ahhhh! Stop it Kira!" shrieked Alini as she tried to wriggle out of her elder sister's grasp. "He's the best duelist ever Kira! Stop being so salty!"

"Oh yeah? I'm gonna beat this Seto Kaiba one day! Then we'll see who's the best!" Kira sniggered as she tried to dodge Alini's attack. Before long, both sisters had collapsed onto the floor in a fit of giggles.

"Love you Monkey," Kira murmured softly, planting a kiss on Alini's forehead. Her younger sister was all she had left in the world and she would do anything to protect her.

"Love you too Sissy. You're the best! Just not in dueling hehe!"

"Hmph, as if I couldn't defeat Seto Kaiba! He's not even that good Alini, he just relies on monsters with high Attack Points to defeat his opponents. Don't see much of a strategy there."

"Well…the only person to ever beat Kaiba in a battle is Yugi Muto! He's pretty good too, but I think Kaiba is cooler!" Alini tittered. Kira rolled her eyes. If only her younger sister put in as much effort into her schoolwork as she did in keeping up with the dueling world!

"Guess I'll have to beat this Yugi kid too then," Kira snorted.

"Well, Kaiba's still the best so it doesn't matter! And as if they'll ever let you into one of those fancy pansy tournaments! No offense Sissy, but those tournaments aren't for people like us…"Alini's eyes were downcast as her voice trailed off.

"I promise you I'll get into one of those tournaments someday." Kira hated to see her sister like this. They might not have money, but they had their honor. "So, if I defeat this Seto Kaiba that you like so much, will you admit that I'm the best duelist?"

"Mmmm…"

"Well, Monkey?"

"Maybe…"

"AHHHH!" Alini shrieked again as Kira launched a full-force tickle attack.

Kira wiped her eyes at that memory. No time to feel sorry for themselves. Her younger sister was counting on her to win this tournament!

Though her younger sister was inexplicably a big fan of Seto Kaiba, Kira herself thought he was nothing special. From the interviews that she had seen of him so far, Kaiba came across as being a typical egomaniacal jerk who thought he could never be bested. Sure, he was ludicrously rich and an adept duelist, but his personality needed a lot of work. The world was full of people like the Kaibas who worshipped at the altar of money.

Her eyes narrowed at the KC DuelTek 1000.

Undefeatable my ass - it's just a PR strategy, thought Kira. If there was one thing her years of dueling experience had taught her, it was that every strategy had its weakness, that is if you were sharp enough to spot it. Truthfully, no enemy was impossible to beat if you observed them enough. Every duelist had his or her blind spot.

Which was why she had worked hard to cover hers.

Ever since she had received her application to the KC Grand Prix 2.0 had been approved and she was sent a proper invite, she had been watching re-runs of old duels from Duelist Kingdom and Battle City to size up the competition, memorizing every move her would-be opponents could possibly make against her. Some of them were formidable no doubt, others plain had the luck of the draw and others were overly confident despite their lack of substance, just like Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood. They had let their former glory get to their heads, making them blind to their opponent's traps. That would be their downfall. Although it was her first ever official tournament, Kira was determined to crush them all, just like she had crushed every opponent that had ever stood in her way.

_'You need to win this for Alini!'_  her thoughts drifted to her younger sister, who would no doubt be watching the live telecast from the hospital. A pang of pain tugged at Kira's heart.  _She should have been at Alini's side!_ She hoped her sister was doing ok without her. But Alini was a strong girl, she would pull through without her big sister. And circumstances couldn't be helped, they needed the prize money!

' _Stay strong sis, I'll beat Seto Kaiba and prove to you that I'm the best duelist!'_

She was about to prove that the KC DuelTek wasn't as undefeatable as it had been made out to be.

"HEY!" came a shrill voice from behind. "It's the albino freak that took our cards! Get her Rex!"

Kira rolled her eyes, not those two losers again. She was surprised Kaiba hadn't kicked them out of the tournament already. And she certainly didn't appreciate being called an albino. Strange genes ran in her family, she couldn't help her appearance.

"What is it this time?" she deadpanned.

"We want our cards back!" Rex Raptor stormed his foot. Kira thought he looked awfully ridiculous with that tuft of purple hair peeking out from his beanie. What purpose did it really serve other than to make him look dorkier than he already did? Kira was never a fan of his since his Duelist Kingdom days.

"You cheated!" Weevil Underwood pointed a finger at her accusingly.

' _Another washed-up had-been,_ ' Kira snorted mentally. She had zero respect for Weevil since he relied on deception and trickery to win his duels. Likewise for Rex Raptor.

FLASHBACK

" _Hah, that puny monster? It's no match for my Insect Queen or Rex's Tyrant Dragon! I just have to destroy your monster, then Rex can have a go at the rest of your Life Points and end this duel!" Weevil screeched as he burst into hysterical laughter. She didn't stand a chance!_

" _Go on, attack me bug boy," Kira goaded. "I'm so scared!" The fool, he had spent too much time grandstanding that the hadn't paid any attention to her face-down card._

" _Gladly! Insect Queen, attack her Black Metal Dragon!"_

**_Insect Queen [ATK: 2200/DEF: 2400] - Black Metal Dragon [ATK: 600/DEF: 600]_ **

" _Activate my face down card, Crush Card!" Kira grinned as the black virus-shaped holograms began to fill the playing field. "You boys think you are so tough, don't you? But you haven't met my Crush Card trap! When a monster with 1000 or less Attack Points is destroyed by battle from my side of the field, it destroys all monsters with 1500 or more Attack Points and sends them to the Graveyard. Black Metal Dragon only had 600 Attack Points so say goodbye to Insect Queen and Tyrant Dragon, dorks. Oh, did I mention I take no battle damage?" Kira smirked. Weevil and Rex's faces turned white as they saw their favorite monsters vanish from the field._

**_Kira Stieber – LP: 1000_ **

**_Rex Raptor – LP: 1200_ **

**_Weevil Underwood – LP: 1400_ **

_It took a lot more than strong monsters to win Duel Monsters. Kira knew from the get-go that they would underestimate her and bring about their own downfall._

" _My turn!" Kira smiled as she drew her next card. One of her favorite dragons! Lucky Luck was on her side._

" _I play my Alexandrite Dragon and Luster Dragon in attack mode! You two have no monsters to protect you now! Alright, Alexandrite Dragon attack Rex's life points directly! Luster Dragon, finish Weevil off!"_

**_Alexandrite Dragon [ATK: 2000, DEF: 100] Rex Raptor – LP: 1200 - LP:0_ **

**_Luster Dragon [ATK: 1900, DEF: 1600] Weevil Underwood – LP: 1400 - LP: 0_ **

**_Victor – Kira Stieber_ **

" _Hah! Who's just a girl now? I'll be taking your Insect Queen and your Tyrant Dragon!" she taunted. She hoped they regretted their actions sorely. "They'll make a fine addition to my collection."_

END FLASHBACK

"You lured us into that trap!" Weevil snarled.

"Yeah, we want a rematch!" Rex grunted.

"It's not my fault you activated my Crush Card trap, a better duelist might have anticipated that," Kira's eyes narrowed. There was nothing that irked her more than being accused of being a cheat, especially by a duelist who in her book was one of the biggest cheats of them all. All her life she had tried to duel with honor, even when the opponents she faced resorted to dirty tricks.  _The duelists that she had faced in the ring would have chewed and spit out Weevil and Rex in five minutes max._ "Plus, the terms of the duel were fair. If you nimrods had won, I would have held up my end of the bargain and given you my best cards."

"Hmph! You got lucky! A rookie like you wouldn't last long against the DuelTek anyway! Kaiba himself said its unbeatable!"

"Oh, that rich snob can say what he wants, I'll crush that machine like I crushed the both of you," Kira scoffed. "And I'm no rookie. You two should have figured that out from how I defeated you so easily!"

"Whatever! We'll defeat you in the next round and take back our cards! We'll take some of yours as well while we're at it," sneered Rex.

"If you are so confident, why don't you go first?" Kira gestured towards the DuelTek. It was her turn against the machine but she thought it would be enjoyable to watch those two twerps make a fool out of themselves. Fancy them acting so cocky when they lacked any real dueling skills!

"Hmph you might have taken Insect Queen but I still have my Perfectly Ultimate Giant Moth!"

"Yeah, and I have my Horned Saurus! That will let me take down the KC DuelTek."

"I'll like to see your monsters stand up to that thing!"

' _Idiots!'_ Kira snickered in her mind _. 'If there's one thing I know about Seto Kaiba is that he's sure to have loaded that machine with the most powerful monsters in the game! You can't take it down by brute force, that's akin to suicide!'_

"Oh yeah, I'll like to see your puny dragons against that machine!" Weevil countered. She had some pretty powerful dragon cards but she was no match against the Dragon Master Seto Kaiba himself!

"Please, that was just my opening act," Kira replied evenly. She wasn't planning to rely on her trusty dragons today. She had another strategy up her sleeve against this hulking behemoth of a machine.

"Go on, let's see what damage you can do," she challenged, knowing full well that Rex and Weevil had already lost the duel.

20 MINUTES LATER…

"Nooooo! My beautiful bugs!" Weevil cried out.

"My divine dinosaurs!" Rex whimpered, sinking to his knees.

**Weevil Underwood – LP: 0**

**Rex Raptor – LP: 0**

**Victor – KC DuelTek 1000**

The screen above them lighted up, displaying the two duelist's challenge scores. Since Kaiba had designed the machine to be invincible, he had to come up with another way of scoring the duelists. The DuelTek had measured its challengers based on speed, reflexes, timing, strategy, and strength of deck.

**Weevil Underwood: 8.5/10**

**Rex Raptor: 8.5/10**

It was enough for the two of them to advance to the top of the table.

"Hah! That's the best this crowd has seen all day!" Weevil jabbed his finger at Kira. "I'll like to see you beat that dragon girl."

Kira smiled and took her place in front of the KC DuelTek 1000.

' _You can do this Kira! Alini lend me your strength."_

With a deep breath, she activated her duel disk as the KC DuelTek whirred to life.

"Let's give these suckers a duel they will never forget!"

**Turn 1:**

"I'll start first!" Kira drew a card. Perfect, it was just the one she needed!

"I'll sacrifice 2000 of my Life Points to play my spell card Final Countdown!"

**Kira Stieber – LP: 4000 - LP: 2000**

She grinned as a hologram of a giant timer appeared on the playing field. It read 20. Now that she had played it, the duel was pretty much in the bag!

"Now this spell card goes to my graveyard, where no one can touch it!"

"Idiot!" chortled Rex from the sidelines. "You just sacrificed your life points for a card that does absolutely nothing!"

From the grandstand, Joey Wheeler's eyes widened. "Hold on Yuge, did I just imagine dat or did Kira just sacrifice half her life points on her first turn? Is she CRAZY?"

"Nope she did that alright Joey, But why? I've never seen that spell card she played before! It must have some sort of special effect, otherwise, Kira wouldn't have risked it!"

"I play one card face down and end my turn."

"Fool!" the KC DuelTek 1000's metallic voice cackled as it drew a card from its virtual deck. Kira cringed. Did Kaiba have to make the machine mock duelists too? This was going to be a long duel…

**Turn 2:**

"I summon my mighty Berserk Gorilla! As you know, thanks to its special effect my monster must attack if it's possible. Berserk Gorilla attack her face-down card!"

**Berserk Gorilla [ATK: 2000/DEF: 0] - Face-down card**

"Oops, the card I played was Marshmallon!" Kira revealed her face-down card. "And you know it's special effect. It cannot be destroyed by battle and you take 1000 damage! Who's the fool now?"

' _Thanks, Alini,'_ she thought.

**KC DuelTek 1000 – LP: 4000 - LP: 3000**

"Alright go Kira!" Joey cheered.

"Please, like it's so easy to defeat my KC DuelTek 1000. It's indestructible. Plus, she can't expect to win playing a card as lame as Marhsmallon. How is a pink marshmallow going to take down my indestructible dueling machine?!" Kaiba snorted.

He had regained his composure following the earlier incident.  _What was that all about?_ He frowned. It had been those damned Egyptian hallucinations again!

_'Yes, it's just stress from organizing this tournament, that's why I'm hallucinating.'_

He didn't know why the name "Kisara" had come to mind since he didn't know anyone with that name and clearly this girl's name was "Kira" and not "Kisara". He made a mental note to get more sleep.

The dueling machine "grunted" in annoyance at Kira's move. Impudent girl! No one had won against it as of yet, she was done for! She didn't know what was coming for her.

"I summon my Blade Knight and place one card face-down. I end my turn."

**Blade Knight [ATK: 1600/DEF: 1000]**

The timer on the field changed from 20 to 19.

"What's dat Yuge!" Joey pointed to the timer. "I thought she sent dat card to the graveyard!"

"I think its effect is still in play. It seems to be counting down the number of turns!" Yugi gasped. What happened when the timer reached 0?

DUEL CONTINUES…

Yugi bit his nails nervously. So far, Kira had done a pretty good job at fending off the brunt of the DuelTek's attack using an array of trap and spell cards but that was not going to be enough. He could see that she was trying to play a defensive strategy but she he hadn't even summoned any powerful monsters to counter the DuelTek's armada of high Attack Points beasts! Why was she stalling? Yugi hoped she had something up her sleeve or the machine would obliterate her soon. It had already managed to whittle down her Life Points….

**Kira Stieber – LP: 1000**

**KC DuelTek 100 – LP: 2500**

This duel had dragged out long enough. Kira had better do something quick…

**Turn 16:**

"My move!" The KC DuelTek 1000 said mechanically. "You're done for, puny human!"

"Just go already!" Kira rolled her eyes. She was getting tired of the sassy machine trash-talking her.  _Kaiba needs to feed it with some new lines_.

"Activate face-down card, Scape Goats! This allows me to me to summon 4 sheep tokens!"

"You plan to win me with those cuddly little sheep?" Kira raised an eyebrow. "Cute. My little sister has some plushies that look just like that!"

"Oh no, this is bad Joey!" Yugi sighed. "Remember what the DuelTek did in the first KC Grand Prix? Kira's in trouble!" If he was right about the machine's next move, then the battle was already over.

"Activate spell card Polymerisation! This allows me to fuse my 4 sheep tokens with my Battle Ox! Combine my monsters to form Five-Headed Dragon!"

**Five-Headed Dragon [ATK: 5000/DEF: 5000]**

"Attack Kira's Alexandrite Dragon and wipe out her life points!"

**Alexandrite Dragon [ATK: 2000/DEF: 100]**

"NO!" chorused Yugi and Joey. Kaiba smirked, looks like Kira Stieber was no match for his machine after all!

**Turn 17:**

"We'll see about that! Activate face-down card Gravity Bind! This means your Five-Headed Dragon can't attack this turn because it is higher than Level 4!"

Or not, Kaiba thought, gritting his teeth.

"You're stalling!" The machine taunted. "This means your monsters can't attack too if they are Level 4 or higher! No matter, I'll finish you the next turn!"

"Well come get me! I place a card face-down and end my turn."

The timer switched to 3.

Game over, the girl had no more moves, that was why she was stalling for time, but it was no use, the Five-Headed Dragon would be able to attack and wipe out her Life Points on the next term and he really doubted that she had a monster powerful enough to stop the Five-Headed Dragon. She came close, but no cigar. His machine would still prevail, Kaiba thought.

**Turn 18:**

"Activate my spell card Mystical Space Typhoon! This allows me to destroy 1 trap or spell card on the field and I choose Gravity Bind! Now my Five-Headed Dragon attack her puny Alexandrite Dragon!"

"No!" Yugi and Joey shouted.

"Not so fast machine. Reveal my trap card Block Attack. Now your dragon can't attack me because it is forced to switch to Defense Mode for this turn!"

"Stalling again! I summon my Slate Warrior in attack mode!" the machine cackled.

**Slate Warrior [ATK: 1900/DEF: 400]**

"My Alexandrite Dragon still has more Attack Points than that!"

"Not for long! I sacrifice my Slate Warrior to summon the terrifying Ginzo!

**Ginzo [ATK: 2400/1500]**

Kira swallowed a gasp of horror as the monster with the nasty contraption strapped to its face hissed at her menacingly. It was one hell of an ugly beast.

"Scared? Alright Ginzo, attack her Alexandrite Dragon!"

**Ginzo [ATK: 2400/1500] - Alexandrite Dragon [ATK: 2000/DEF: 100]**

**Kira Stieber LP: 1000 - 600**

She winced as the shockwaves of the hologram attack hit her. Damn that machine! Alexandrite Dragon was one of her favorite monsters!

"You'll be toast when my Five-Headed Dragon is able to attack you next turn! You barely have any life points left!"

**Turn 19:**

"My turn!" Kira gritted her teeth together as she drew. Almost there, she just had to defend her remaining life point. The countdown timer now read 2.

"Since I have no more monsters on my side of the field, let me summon some friends! Meet my Axe Dragonute! I also summon my Zero Gardna to the field!'

**Axe Dragonute [ATK: 2000/DEF: 1200]**

**Zero Gardna [ATK: 0/DEF: 0]**

"Her dragon is not strong enough! And why did she play dat stupid rectangle-looking thing eh? It has zero Attack Points!" Joey gasped, the duel machine had twice as many life points as Kira and she was cutting it really close…Now would be a good time for the silver-haired girl to summon the most powerful monsters in her deck but she summoned  _those_? He hated to admit it but she was toast!

"That's not all. I play my Shadow Spell to reduce your Five-Headed Dragon's Attack Points to 700 measly points."

**Five-Headed Dragon [ATK: 5000/DEF: 5000] - [ATK: 700/DEF: 5000]**

"Good job Kira!" Yugi called encouragingly from the stand. She gave him a thumbs-up sign in return.

"How do you like that? I place one card face-down and end my turn. Your turn, machine. Come get me." Kira smiled. She hoped the machine would take her bait...

**Turn 20:**

"Fool! You might have weakened my mighty dragon but I still have Ginzo! That's enough to wipe out your puny Axe Dragonute so my Five-Headed Dragon can attack your useless Zero Gardna and reduce your Life Points to 0! Alright, Ginzo attack her Axe Dragonute! Since Ginzo is in play, all trap cards are negated so your face-down card can't save you from this attack!'

"Hold up! I tribute Zero Gardner to protect my dragon! When I tribute this card, my monsters cannot be destroyed by battle, so your Ginzo's attack was useless! And you'll have to get through my Axe Dragonute first if you want to touch my Life Points!" Kira retorted.

Close call! Joey wiped the sweat from his brow. She managed to stop the machine's monsters from attacking! Seriously this girl had to stop playing them like that!

"Aargh! I'll get you soon enough!"

The timer ticked 1.

Perfect! Kira smiled. The duel was hers!

**Turn 21:**

The timer hit 0.

**Victor – Kira Stieber**

The crowd gasped in stunned surprise.

"Noooooo…." The machine droned as it came to terms with its inconceivable defeat.

"How did you do that!" Weevil demanded. It must have been a glitch in the system! The DuelTek 1000 still had more Life Points than Kira.

"You forgot the card I played in my first turn. My "useless" spell card? Its name is Final Countdown and it lets me win automatically after 20 turns have passed!" Kira smirked. "You can't beat the DuelTek with brawn but you can certainly do it with brains!"

_That's why she was stalling, it was her strategy all along!_  Yugi grinned. He had to give it to Kira, it was an unorthodox strategy but it had certainly worked!

Overhead, the screens flashed.

**Kira Stieber: 10/10**

A perfect score! The crowd exploded into a raucous cheer.

"A glorious finish for Kira Stieber, our one and only contestant to ever best the KC DuelTek 1000! Alright folks, give it up for her!" Mokuba exclaimed into his mic. This was amazing! His brother had programmed the machine to be invincible but somehow against all odds, this girl had worked out a strategy to take it down.

"Impossible! My DuelTek 1000 is indestructible!" Kaiba yelled as he leaned over the railing. His eyeballs nearly popped out of his head. He had to be dreaming!

"On the contrary, Mr. Kaiba!" Kira gleamed as she called out from the stage. "You combined the strategies of the world's most powerful players to make your DuelTek machine. It certainly has the advantage of having the cards with the highest Attack Points in the game but you forget, every strategy has its flaws! You never expected a duelist to play a defensive strategy against your machine, that's why your machine couldn't stop my Final Countdown! By preventing the DuelTek from attacking, I was able to exploit its weakness!"

Kaiba gritted his teeth. Why the nerve of this rookie! Nobody made a fool out of Seto Kaiba! Nobody!

"Roland, do a thorough background check on Kira Stieber," he hissed into the concealed mouthpiece of his suit. "Look into every single directory and database that we have access too, I want a complete profile!"

"Roger that Mr. Kaiba. I'll start working on it immediately!'

Kaiba glowered at the silver-haired girl as she leaped off the platform to the crowd's adoring applause. How had a rookie duelist whom he knew next to nothing about manage to defeat his DuelTek 1000 and steal the show at his Grand Prix? He didn't trust her. Something about the picture didn't quite add up, and he would get to the bottom of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven't figured it out, Kira is Kisara's modern day reincarnation. I've tried to be subtle yet obvious enough about it so it wasn't super in your face considering she wasn't with the gang during the Memories Arc, Kira wouldn't even be aware of her connection to Ancient Egypt at this point. She's very different from the way Kisara is portrayed in the series (clearly Kira doesn't share Kisara's loyalty to Priest Seto/Kaiba...yet. But we'll get there eventually) but Yugi's personality differs greatly from the Pharaoh as does Kaiba and Priest Seto. I was planning to write Kira's character as the original Kisara but I figured she should have her own modern-day reincarnation as well. Hope that clarifies things for those who may be confused :)


	6. The Dragon Master

Wow Yuge, look at all the food!" Joey's eyes widened to the size of saucers when his eyes landed on the impeccable buffet spread laid out in front of them. His mouth watered as he took in the sumptuous spread. He could not wait to devour those juicy-looking giant shrimps in particular! Oh boy were they in for a treat.

Yugi had to agree. His stomach growled as the delicious aromas wafted into his nostrils. Was that Peking Duck he smelled? The Kaibas had spared no expense on the reception. The qualifiers had concluded after a brilliant showcase of dueling talent from the contestants and the lucky finalists were all invited to a special banquet in the Kaiba Land Hotel.

Yugi was relieved that there had been no news from Scorpios so far. They were allowed at least one evening to relax and enjoy themselves right?

"Yugi!" Tea called as she raced into the room. Mokuba had been generous enough to let his friends into the exclusive banquet.

"Well, Seto said I was in charge, so I guess it's no problem at all!" The younger Kaiba brother had replied with a playful wink. Sometimes Yugi wondered how the two brothers could be so different in temperament. Mokuba was kind and personable, while Kaiba was just…cold.

"Hey Tea! Wow…you look great!" Yugi felt a burning blush creep up his neck and silently cursed himself. It was at times like this he wished the Pharaoh were still around to take over! But Tea really did look beautiful. The statuesque brunette was dressed in a simple but elegant blue gown. Around her neck hung a bejeweled necklace that reflected brilliantly under the chandelier lights.

"Aw thanks, Yugi," giggled Tea, cheeks flushing pink. "It's not every day that we get invited to fancy parties like this! Thanks for letting me be your plus one!"

_It's not a date, it's not a date, it's not a date!_ Yugi tried to convince himself but that only made him blush even harder. He hoped Tea didn't realize how pink his cheeks were...

"Alright, seems like the Kaiba brothers really know how to throw a party!" exclaimed Tristan as he entered the room. "Wait Joey did you already eat all the food? Save some for me you jerk!" he shouted and sped across the room when he spied Joey refilling his plate furiously at the buffet counter.

"Nnngh! Go away, Tristan! Joey doesn't share food!" Joey shouted defensively as he tried to pile even more food onto his overflowing plate.  _Nobody stood in the way of Joey Wheeler and his beloved food!_

"Guess Joey shouldn't have invited Tristan to be his plus one huh," Tea sighed, shaking her head as she and Yugi walked over to the buffet table. The boys were attracting quite a scene. She loved her friends to death but she really wished they would start acting their age for once. They were in college for crying out loud!

"Joey!" Serenity called out, spying her big brother from across the room.

"Heh? Sis! Whatcha doing here? And how did you get in?" Joey was so shocked he nearly dropped the plate of food he was holding. "And hold on, is that DUKE? What are you doing here with my sister?!" Joey jabbed an accusing finger at the raven-haired boy.

"As the founder of the fan-favorite Dungeon Dice Monsters, I'm a Guest of Honour at this tournament you know. Serenity here couldn't wait to see her big brother duel again so I asked her along! And…do you want to tell him Serenity? Or shall I break the news to Joey?" Duke cocked his chin and twirled a tendril of his long black hair around his fingers. Joey gritted his teeth. He had an idea why those two were here together and he did not like it one bit.

"Well…I didn't know how to tell you big brother, but Duke and I have been seeing each other for awhile now hehe! Hope you're not mad…" Serenity blushed shyly as Duke's hand slipped into hers.

"WHA? I'MMA KILL YOU DUKE!" Tristan lunged. If that pretty-boy Devlin so much as laid a finger on  _his_  Serenity, he was going to destroy his face!

"YOU BETTER NOT BE MESSING WITH MY SISTA DEVLIN!" Joey shouted at the same time, reaching for Duke's collar.

"KNOCK IT OFF BOYS!" Tea's sudden outburst caused both boys to stop dead in the tracks. She sighed. Her friends were such idiots! She really needed to find some female friends before she went insane.

"It's okay Joey, I'm serious about Serenity! She's the love of my life. I promise I'm gonna treat her right." Duke looked at Serenity adoringly, causing the pretty redhead to blush. It took all of Tristan's self-control not to slap Duke across his face right there and then. How could this be possible? His Serenity? The one he had been pining after ever since Battle City? With  _dice boy_?! He could feel his heart shattering into pieces.

"Well…if you're happy sis…" Joey grumbled, holding his arms across his chest, causing Serenity to chuckle. He had lost all his appetite for the evening. No amount of delicious delicacies could ever make this situation right! Not even those heavenly-smelling pork buns that the waiter was serving…

"Hey! They displayed the finalists' challenge scores!" Yugi pointed excitedly at the screen as the faces of the Top 16 finalists of the qualifiers flashed on the screen. "Looks like Kira is in first place! I knew she could do it!"

"Yeah, she's amazing! Plus, did you see the look on Money Bags' face when she defeated his stupid machine? Priceless hah! I hope she makes it to the next round cuz I really wanna duel her in the semi-finals!" Joey exclaimed, punching his fist in the air. Any duelist who could give Seto Kaiba a run for his money was a true duelist in his books.

"You'll have to get through me first," came a sultry voice from behind. "Silver-hair is mine."

"Mai? Wow! You look…" Joey's voice trailed off as he felt Mai's arm wrap around his shoulder. The blonde had really pulled out all the stops tonight in a skin-tight purple gown with a plunging neckline that left little to the imagination.

"Thanks, Joey, I'm gonna take that as a compliment," Mai winked. "As I was saying, there aren't nearly enough good female duelists in the competition. It's only fair I get to duel against Kira Stieber! She may have figured out the trick to defeating Kaiba's Dueltek but she's no match against my Harpie Ladies!"

"Looks like Bug Boy and Dino Dork got through too," Tea narrowed her eyes as Rex and Weevil's sneering faces flashed on the screen. She hadn't quite forgiven them for the fiasco they had tried to pull on Yugi and Joey. It was downright despicable to resort to stealing another duelist's deck! Not that those two twerps ever stood a chance against her friends in a fair duel anyway.

"No matter, Joey and Yugi are going to crush them!" Tristan smirked. "Those two idiots don't stand a chance."

"Oh my god guys! That's my professor!" Yugi's hand flew to his mouth as the image of Professor van Allen's bespectacled face appeared on the screen.

"No way! The archaeology guy you're always telling us about? What is he doing here?!" Joey squinted at the screen. No mistake. It read Howard van Allen indeed.

Yugi couldn't believe it! What was the professor doing at a Duel Monster's tournament? And judging from his high score, he had breezed through the qualifiers as well! He scanned the room, but the professor was nowhere to be seen. Though his eyes landed on a very familiar figure…

"YUUUGGGIIII!"

"Ahhh hide me!" Yugi exclaimed as he ducked behind Tristan. Too late as Rebecca was already running over. Yugi sighed, he liked Rebecca but only as a friend though she never seemed to get the hint.

"Yugi! I've missed you! And you look so handsome in that tuxedo tehe!" Rebecca giggled, hooking her arm around Yugi's much to Tea's obvious annoyance.

"Hey! Kira's there, should we say hi?" Yugi gestured towards the silver-haired girl who was standing in a corner, grateful for any distraction he could muster. Kira was dressed in a simple white dress that almost seemed too reticent against her alabaster skin. She looked kind of lonely and Yugi's heart went out to her. No one likes being an outsider.

"Kira! Yoohoo, get over here! I was just talking to Mai Valentine here about who's gonna be dueling you in the semi-finals! Looks like you're the one to beat in this competition!" Joey grinned toothily, flashing her a thumbs-up sign. Yugi had to give it to him, he really had a knack for making friends easily.

Kira looked surprised that Joey was even talking to her but she made her way over to the group.

"Really cool party huh," Yugi smiled, trying his best to make her feel welcome in the group. He introduced her to his friends and filled them in on how Kira had retrieved their stolen decks from Rex and Weevil.

"Wow those punks are still at it huh," Duke shook his head. Those two had caused enough trouble. During their last encounter, they had even gotten themselves entangled with that nasty Orichalcos gang. He hoped they wouldn't cause any more trouble for Yugi and Joey. Especially not when his beloved Serenity was so excited to see her big brother duel again...

"Bah, those two are a disgrace. They shouldn't even be allowed to call themselves duelists! Kira taught them a lesson they will never forget!" Joey snorted.

Kira laughed at this. Yugi was glad to see her warming up to the group.

"Say Kira, how did you know to play that Final Countdown card in your duel?" Mai asked, sizing her competitor up. Looks wise, this Kira Stieber was nothing to write home about. She had a certain wild beauty about her but she was clearly no femme fatale. Yet, on that dueling stage, she had displayed a ferocious intensity that Mai had seen little of in other duelists. Very intriguing indeed.  _For what do you duel for Kira?_ Mai wondered.

"Well…I figured Kaiba would have programmed the DuelTek to play the strongest monsters in the game. I've seen some of its battles and I knew I wouldn't have the monsters to beat that. But with Final Countdown, I don't have to worry! As long as I could prevent the DuelTek from attacking me, I knew I would be able to win!" Kira replied. "And I'm only telling you this because I won't be using Final Countdown anymore, so you can't use it against me! I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve," she added with a playful smile.

"No way!" Joey cried out. He had already outlined a "brilliant" strategy to take down her card. Why were his competitors always one step ahead of him?

"A duelist must be prepared for everything Joey! You never know for sure what move your opponent is going to make!" Yugi laughed.

"Hmph, you're sharp Stieber! But let's see how you match up against my Harpie Ladies!" Mai harrumphed, though she was secretly impressed by the younger girl's grit.

"Miss Stieber, a word please," Roland materialized behind them. He wore a hard expression on his face as though it had been carved from metal. Yugi often wondered if he was a robot that Kaiba had programmed to do his bidding. It would explain why Roland never betrayed a hint of emotion under any circumstances.

"See you guys around!" Kira smiled. She couldn't wait.

* * *

Seto Kaiba smirked to himself, clasping his hands beneath his chin. Finally, he had tracked down the hoodlum that had hacked into his system.

"Well played…" He murmured under his breath. The person certainly had the smarts but they were still no match for him. Nobody tried to mess with KaibaCorp and get away with it.

"What is the meaning of this?! I want to speak to Kaiba now!" a furious voice sounded from outside his office.

"You can't go in miss! It's authorized personnel only!" Roland replied testily.

"I don't care!"

"Miss! Stop! You can't…OW!" The sound of a kick making contact with its recipient could be heard.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Typical delinquent behavior. No surprise there. He hoped Roland was ok.

"Let our guest in, Roland. Trust me, she can do no harm."

"If you say so, sir…"

"Seto Kaiba! I demand an explanation!" Kira fumed, arms folded her across her chest. If the midget had been taller, it might even have passed for intimidating, Kaiba snorted mentally. To think this pipsqueak had managed to sneak her way into his elite tournament!

"Well…if it isn't the girl who defeated by DuelTek 1000. Tell me, how did you do it exactly?" his voice took on an icy edge.  _She cheated! That's how she managed to do it._

"Is this about your stupid dueling machine? You saw the match yourself! I beat it fair and square. Why don't you stop being such a sore loser huh? You can't disqualify me for winning against the machine! Isn't winning a part of your tournament requirements?"

Kaiba threw his head back and laughed. This girl was still trying to play dumb with him.

"You cheated."

"What?" her pale face turned red and her blue eyes darkened with rage. Kaiba quite enjoyed this exchange. He was going to have fun tearing her apart. "I did no such thing!"

"Really Miss Stieber? Very impressive show you put on today. So impressive that I thought, if this girl is so good why haven't I heard of her before? So, I had my staff look into your profile. Guess what I found Miss Stieber?" He snarled, tossing a folder of documents at her.

The girl blanched as she read its contents.

"I…I can explain!"

"Yes, please explain yourself, Miss Stieber. You see, I found nothing about your profile in our KaibaCorp databases. No tournament records, no official duels, no records of cards that you own, nothing. Very strange, so I had Roland dig a little deeper and guess what I found? It seems you have quite an extensive criminal record, Miss Stieber. Let's start from the top, shall we? Petty theft, some misdemeanor charges and looks like you didn't even finish high school! And, what's this? You were arrested for involvement with an underground dueling ring! Wow, Miss Stieber, I don't know what to say other than there's no way my system would have let a delinquent like you into this tournament!"

The girl hung her head.

"So, let me tell you what I think happened. You hacked into my system and registered yourself as an official duelist. You then looked through KC data to get information on my DuelTek which is how you were able to defeat my machine! And you thought you had me fooled!" His voice had soared to a smoldering rage.

"Look Kaiba, I don't know what you are talking about. I registered for this tournament officially. And even if I wanted to hack into your system, I wouldn't know how to do it! If your system screwed up, that's on you, not on me. You're right about my past. I may be a "delinquent" but I still have my honor as a duelist!" Kira seethed through gritted teeth. She didn't quite understand what Kaiba was getting at but he didn't have the right to demean her this way. Yes, she had done things in the past that she wasn't proud of, but who hadn't? This tournament was her chance to start afresh.

"You have no right to call yourself that," he spat. The viciousness in his tone was enough to send ice through Kira's veins but she held her head high. She refused to show this man any weakness. "Pack your things and leave my tournament immediately."

"Wow, you're really as cruel as the papers say you are. I thought perhaps they were wrong about you. But Seto Kaiba, you are nothing but a vile and vicious person. You leave me with no choice," she inhaled sharply. Her shoulders trembled. Was she really going to go through with this? She had to, there was no choice.  _For Alini_. "I challenge you to a duel! If I win, you have to let me stay in the tournament!"

"You want to duel me?" he snorted, incredulous that this girl had the gall to challenge him after what she had done. Her insults barely stung, he had heard much worse than that considering there was no shortage of people who believed they had a right to judge his character. "I'll humor you Miss Stieber, but only because I know you don't stand a chance. Why does this matter to you so badly anyway? Don't you make enough money off those illegal duel rings? Why the sudden interest in KaibaCorp?"

Kira didn't answer.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes. "Let's get this done and over with."

"Duel!"

**Turn 1: Seto Kaiba**

"I'll start things off! I play my X-Head Cannon in attack mode and play a card face-down" Kaiba smirked as he set his card down on his Duel Disk. "Your move."

**X-Head Cannon [ATK: 1800, DEF: 1500]**

**Turn 2: Kira Stieber**

Kira gritted her teeth. She knew what he was up to. He was trying to summon his XYZ Dragon Cannon! That thing would be hard to take down, she had to find a way to stop him…

_Alini is counting on you!_

"I summon Axe Dragonute to the field!"

**Axe Dragonute [ATK: 2000/DEF: 1200]**

The black dragon shrieked as it appeared on the playing field. It clutched a terrible black axe in its claws, threatening to hack its opponents to shreds if they so much as tried to attack.

"My monster has more attack points than yours so say goodbye to the X-Head Cannon!"

**Axe Dragonute [ATK: 2000/DEF: 1200] - X-Head Cannon [ATK: 1800, DEF: 1500]**

Her Axe Dragonute lunged at the metal cannon, smashing it to smithereens and taking out Kaiba's life points.

**Seto Kaiba – LP: 4000 – 3800**

Great! She had taken out some of his Life Points on his first turn and put a dent in his plans to summon the XYZ-Dragon Cannon.

"I place one card face-down and end my turn."

**Turn 3: Seto Kaiba**

"Did you really think it was going to be so easy? Meet the wrath of my Cyber Dragon! When my opponent controls a monster, I can special summon this card from my hand!" Kaiba retorted smugly. He would find a way to return his cannon to the field. And thanks to Kira, he had managed to summon a powerful monster without a tribute.

Kira gritted her teeth. She would have given anything to wipe that pompous look off his face.

**Cyber Dragon [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1600]**

The scales of the dragon shone a beautiful metallic silver under the moonlight streaming in through the windows. Kira swallowed a gasp. Kaiba's dragon was a terrifying beauty to behold.

"And now Cyber Dragon attack her Axe Dragonute!"

**Cyber Dragon [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1600] - Axe Dragonute [ATK: 2000/DEF: 1200]**

**Kira Stieber LP: 4000 – 3900**

Kira gritted her teeth. Fine, she would let him have this one. No harm done.

"To end things, I will summon my Y-Dragon Head in defense position. That's all for now."

**Y-Dragon Head [ATK: 1500/DEF: 1600]**

**Turn 4: Kira Stieber**

"I draw my next card! I won't let you summon your XYZ Dragon Cannon Kaiba!"

Damn it! She didn't have any powerful enough monsters to defeat neither his Y-Dragon Head nor Cyber Dragon! But wait, she had a card that could turn the tides of the duel to her favor.

"I summon my Black Metal Dragon in Attack Mode. Next, I'll play another face-down card and end my turn"

**Black Metal Dragon [ATK: 600/DEF: 600]**

She hoped he would take the bait.

**Turn 5: Seto Kaiba**

"Oh, that puny thing? If I knew better, I would have said you've given up. But no, you're not that kind of duelist are you Miss Stieber? You're a tenacious one. The only reason you played that weak dragon is because you're trying to lure me into a trap!" Kaiba growled. He could see right through her amateur strategies! He had a very good idea what card she had just laid down.

"Activate my spell card Mystical Space Typhoon! This lets me destroy one of your spell or trap cards! I target that face-down card you just set!"

Kira's brow furrowed as the hologram of the Typhoon slammed into her Crush Card trap and blitzed it to smithereens. So close! That had worked well enough on Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood. Then again, this was Seto Kaiba she was up against. He was in a league of his own.

"Crush Card is  _my_  card! Don't think you can use my strategies against me!" His finger trembled with indignation as he jabbed it at her.

"Now Cyber Dragon wipe out her pathetic little dragon!"

"Wait! I activate my spell card One Day of Peace! Both of us have to draw one card each and we both don't take any damage until the end of my next turn!" Kira played the card from her hand. Both duelists drew, throwing each other pointed glares in the process.

"Hmph, you've managed to stop me from attacking your Life Points this turn but not for long." Kaiba narrowed his eyes. He should have known! This girl's main strategy was stalling. But he wouldn't let her win this time.

"I'll end my turn by summoning my Z-Metal Tank in Defence Mode. You'll be toast soon."

**Z-Metal Tank [ATK: 1500/DEF: 1300]**

**Turn 6: Kira Stieber**

Kira gritted her teeth and drew. Her Black Metal Dragon was useless! She needed a stronger monster. If Kaiba's monsters attacked it, the difference in attack points would be too great and a huge chunk of her Life Points would be taken out. She would have to get rid of it somehow.

"Activate trap card Altar for Tribute. I'll send my Black Metal Dragon to the graveyard and increase my Life Points by 600!"

**Kira Stieber LP: 3900 – 4500**

"Good riddance, your dragon was almost too pathetic. My dragons are more powerful and will finish yours off in an instant!" Kaiba bristled. His Cyber Dragon screeched in agreement.

"You're not the only one with powerful Dragons Seto Kaiba, meet my Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit! When my opponent controls a monster and I control none I can special summon this dragon!" Kira silently congratulated herself. Not only had she replenished her Life Points but she had also managed to summon a powerful monster without a tribute.

**Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1400]**

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Her dragon's scales were a regal shade of gold and it possessed terrifying bellowing roar that had the power to shake an ordinary human being to the core. Not him though. He had spent too much time mastering these beasts to be afraid of them! And her dragon was equally matched with his Cyber Dragon. She was going to have to try harder than that if she wanted to win this duel.

"Your Cyber Dragon may be a match for mine but I'm going to change that with my spell Block Attack! This changes your monster from Attack to Defence Mode so you aren't going anywhere near my dragon Kaiba. I set one face-down card and end my turn."

**Turn 7: Seto Kaiba**

Why this brat! He cursed her under his breath as he drew. She hadn't attacked, which meant she was planning something...

"I play Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw 2 cards!"

"Fine go right ahead."

"I wouldn't be so smug if I were you, Miss Stieber, look what I just drew?" He held up his card, causing the silver-haired girl to flinch in shock.

_Talk about luck of the draw!_

"First I'll use Monster Reborn to bring back my X-Head Cannon."

**X-Head Cannon [ATK: 1800, DEF: 1500]**

"You know what this means, don't you Miss Stieber? I remove my X-Head Cannon, Y-Dragon Head, and Z-Metal Tank to summon my XYZ-Dragon Cannon!"

**XYZ-Dragon Cannon [ATK: 2800/DEF: 2600]**

Kira narrowed her eyes. Damn it! She hadn't been able to stop him from summoning it in time! But she had a backup plan…

"Now my Dragon Cannon, attack Kira's dragon!"

"Not so fast Kaiba! I activate my trap card Castle of Dragon Souls! This allows me to banish one dragon from my graveyard and target one monster to give it a boost of 700 attack points. The monster I banish is my mighty Axe Dragonute. Even when my dragons are vanquished, they can still serve their master. Now my Hieratic Dragon gains 700 points!"

**XYZ-Dragon Cannon [ATK: 2800/DEF: 2600] - Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit [ATK: 2800/DEF: 1400]**

Both monsters disappeared from the playing field in a flash of white, the resulting shockwaves sending both their owners sliding a step back.

"Fine, I end my turn," Kaiba snapped. She might have destroyed his Dragon Cannon but his Life Points were safe. The good news was that her dragon too had been destroyed in the process. And besides, she had made a big mistake sending his Dragon Cannon to the graveyard! It could always be special summoned again. He had just the card he needed for that lurking in his deck. Besides, he already had the cards he needed to win in his hand. Let her exhaust herself taking out the rest of his monsters, he was sure of delivering the final devasting blow in this duel.

**Turn 8: Kira Stieber**

"My turn!" Kira drew.  _Please let it be a good card._

She might have taken down his Dragon Cannon but his Cyber Dragon was still on the field and Kaiba could easily switch it to attack mode on his next turn. Thankfully it didn't have many defense points so she should be able to take it down fairly easily.

"Come forth Alexandrite Dragon!"

**Alexandrite Dragon [ATK: 2000/DEF: 100]**

The bejeweled scales of her favorite dragon cast a crystalline glow across the playing field. It was the perfect mix of beauty and power, thought Kira. Fitting for a duel of this magnitude.

"Alexandrite Dragon! Attack his Cyber Dragon!"

**Alexandrite Dragon [ATK: 2000/DEF: 100] - Cyber Dragon [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1600]**

Kaiba grunted as his card disappeared from the field. This girl was really getting on his nerves and he loathed the fact that she was playing so many Dragon-Type cards. Those were his specialty! They didn't call him the Dragon Master for nothing. She couldn't hold a candle to him even if she tried. Her dragons were powerful, but they would be no match for his ultimate beast once he had summoned it.

"Fine, my Life Points are still safe. And your Alexandrite Dragon isn't that imposing Kira. I'll destroy it next turn!"

"My Castle of Dragon Summoning is still in play and I have another dragon in my graveyard! Remember my "pathetic" Black Metal Dragon? Well it serves me much better in the graveyard than on my field! So attack my dragon if you dare because I'm about to add the 700 attack points to my Alexandrite Dragon!"

**Alexandrite Dragon [ATK: 2700/DEF: 100]**

"I'll set one face-down card and end my turn. Your move Kaiba, I'd be careful if I were you."

**Turn 9: Seto Kaiba**

2700 Attack Points, hard to defeat but not impossible, Kaiba thought as he drew.

Perfect, just the one wanted. Time to start playing one of his devastating combos! That should make Kira quake in her boots.

"I'll start by summoning my Lord of D!"

**Lord of D [ATK: 1200/DEF: 1100]**

"Next I'll play the Flute of Summoning Dragon! Lord of D allows me to activate its effect. This allows me to Special Summon up to 2 dragons to the field. Guess which ones I have in my hand?" Kaiba smirked knowingly.

Kira flinched. Had he drawn one of his infamous Blue Eyes White Dragons?

"Now I summon my almighty Blue Eyes White Dragon to the field followed by Rabidragon!"

**Blue Eyes White Dragon [ATK: 3000/DEF: 2500]**

**Rabidragon [ATK: 2950/DEF: 2900]**

The great beasts roared imposingly, causing the silver-haired girl to take a step back. She breathed, regaling in their winged and terrifying beauty. They were a sight to behold with their scales shimmering under the pale moonlight. Especially the Blue Eyes White Dragon whose silver scales seemed as though they were made of light itself. Its piercing shriek reverberated throughout the entire room, filling it with an atmosphere of majesty. The beast's cry seemed to strike something deep within her heart. Kira's jaw hung open. All must bow before such a magnificent creature.

"Scared?" Kaiba misread the look on her face for fear. "You should be! Blue Eyes! Wipe out her Alexandrite Dragon!"

"Not so fast Kaiba! Activate face-down card Waboku! Now your monsters can't attack!" Kira smirked.

**Turn 10: Kira Stieber**

"Look you're stalling again. You don't have your Final Countdown so unfortunately for you, stalling won't work this time! It's like you barely know how to duel." Kaiba grumbled. This duel was getting on his nerves. 9 turns had passed and they had barely inflicted any battle damage on each other though that would soon change. She was just wasting his time. "Just give up Kira! You're no match for me!"

"Some of us duel for people other than ourselves you know!" Kira shot back as she drew her next card.

"Really? Who are you dueling for then? Scorpios?" He almost spat the name out. It left a bitter taste in his mouth just to utter that word.

"Where did you hear that name Kaiba?!" Kira demanded, a dark look crossing her face. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Don't play dumb with me! I mean your bosses of course," he fumed. "Now hurry up and draw."

"Kaiba…I'm not kidding. If Scorpios is involved, then this is really bad!"

"Just play the card, Kira."

_Fine, be that way._ Kira drew. "I summon Galaxy Dragon!" Galaxy Dragon's special effect allowed it to only attack Dragon-Type monsters but it would gain 1000 attack points during the damage phase. It would be enough to take out 1 Blue Eyes White Dragon, as long as Kaiba didn't draw another Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. He had enough monsters to tribute to summon it! But what were the odds he would draw another Blue Eyes on his next turn? She had some buffer room to play with…for now.

**Galaxy Dragon [ATK: 2000, DEF: 1200]**

"Galaxy Dragon attack his Blue Eyes!"

"Hold it! I play my face-down trap card Spellbinding Illusion on your Galaxy Dragon! Its effect is negated and its attack points are reduced to 500! You won't be able to stop my Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

**Galaxy Dragon [ATK: 500, DEF: 1200] -** **Blue Eyes White Dragon [ATK: 3000/DEF: 2500]**

Kira gasped as her dragon disappeared from the field.

**Kira Stieber - LP: 4500 - 2000**

"Looks like you're going down Kira."

"Fine. I play my magic card Swords of Revealing Light so you can't attack for the next 3 turns! I end my turn." She wished she could do more but at least that would buy her some time before he could attack again with his dragons.

**Turn 11: Seto Kaiba**

Kaiba gritted his teeth in frustration. Was there no end to this girl's stall tactics? No matter, the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon would sound enter the playing field.

"Guess what I just drew?" Kaiba smirked after he drew his next card.

Kira's eyes widened. How was he always so lucky?

"How?!" she demanded.

"My deck never lets me down Kira! I tribute my Lord of D and Rabidragon to summon my second Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

**Blue Eyes White Dragon [ATK: 3000/DEF: 2500]**

He threw his head back and laughed.

Her monsters were no match for his! When the Swords of Revealing Light left the field, he would be able to attack her weak little dragons. And he had to thank her for playing the Swords of Revealing light - it gave him enough time to summon his ultimate monster. All that was left was for him to draw his third Blue Eyes before he could unleash his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. She had nothing to measure up against that.

"Kaiba listen to me, Scorpios is up to no good!" Kira hissed. "Trust me, I've had a run-in with them."

"Sure."

"KAIBA! I'm serious!"

"Whatever you say. I think I've done enough for this turn. Your move."

**Turn 12: Kira Stieber**

"Listen to me Seto Kaiba, I don't know what Scorpios said or did to you, but you've walked into a trap. Organizing this tournament was a mistake! That's just what they want you to do! And I bet they've already infiltrated the ranks of the competition."

The wind howled through the open window, whipping its fingers through her silver hair and sending it billowing around her.

"You're Scorpios. Stop trying to play your mind-games on me!"

"I'm not!" Kira insisted, exasperated. This wasn't about him and his stupid company anymore! If he had witnessed what she had seen Scorpios do first-hand, then he wouldn't be acting so cavalier. But how could she explain that to him? She knew he wouldn't believe her no matter what she said.

"Draw your next card, Kira. This duel is almost over."

Damn it! She didn't have any monsters that could defeat a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Though there was one card that might work...She would just have to buy some time until she could draw it. Hopefully, that would give her enough time to talk some sense into this pompous jerk!

"I play one card face-down and end my turn." Her card was Ordeal of a Traveler. If Kaiba couldn't guess the card she chose when his dragon attacked, she could return the beast to his hand. It would buy her one more turn to draw the card she needed.

**Turn 13: Seto Kaiba**

Kaiba scowled at the silver-haired girl. He didn't know what trick she was trying to pull but it wasn't going to work on him. He almost had this duel in the bag! Nothing would distract him from his impending victory.

"Not setting a monster? Looks like you're done for Stieber! I play Hand Destruction so both of us have to send 2 cards from our hands to the Graveyard and the card I send to mine is White Stone of Legend. This card has a special effect when sent to the Graveyard so guess who comes out from my deck? Meet my third Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

**Blue Eyes White Dragon [ATK: 3000/DEF: 2500]**

She gasped. 3 Blue Eyes White Dragons? Oh no…

"Next, I'll activate Polymerisation! This enables me to fuse my dragons and summon the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

**Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon [ATK: 4500, DEF: 3800]**

The great three-headed beast shrieked thunderously as it materialized onto the playing field. Its razor-sharp wings flapped, sending waves of lightning bolting across the field.

It shone so brightly Kira had to squint to behold it. Never had she seen such formidable creature in her life. Her mouth hung open in awe.

"That's all for this turn. I'll be able to attack soon and you can't stop me!"

**Turn 14: Kira Stieber**

"We're wasting our time dueling," Kira muttered as she drew. "Scorpios is the threat we should be worried about."

This Seto Kaiba was as stubborn as an ox. What did she have to do to get him to listen to her? And time was running out, she had to stop his dragon before the effect of Swords of Revealing light was over. There was only one card in her deck that stood a chance.

_Please let me have drawn it!_

She glanced at the card in her hand and smiled triumphantly.

It was her trusty Raigeki! That would destroy all the monsters on the opponent's side of the field so that meant Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon would be scorched to a crisp, leaving his Life Points wide open. Her monsters weren't powerful enough to win but it was good enough for her to wipe out the majority of his Life Points. Plus without his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, his chances of winning the duel were slim at best. She raised her hand to set down her card.

A loud thud reverberated through the room, causing both duelists to jump.

"WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE SETO KAIBA!" shouted a deep raspy voice as the intruders kicked down the door. Kaiba and Kira barely had time to react before they were surrounded by a swarm of men in black. There was no escape.

Kaiba gritted his teeth and shot Kira a menacing look. Was she in on this? But from her shell-shocked expression, he had to grudgingly admit that perhaps she wasn't the enemy after all.

"Don't move," the figure threatened as the group surrounded the two duelists at gunpoint.

"Now do you believe me?" Kira scowled as they both raised their hands in surrender.

End of Chapter 6


	7. Of Knights and Dragons

She awoke to the cloak of darkness shrouding her, but Kira wasn't afraid of the dark. She had long learned that monsters didn't reside in the shadows, they resided in your head.

She blinked as her eyes easily adjusted to the dimness of the room. She heard a figure groan and stir near her.

_Kaiba._

"Wake up sleeping beauty," she couldn't resist a jab at the CEO.

"Kira? What happened? Where are you?" Kaiba demanded angrily. She could hear him struggling with the bindings around him.

"Relax, stop struggling so much, you won't be getting out of the ropes that way."

"How can you be so calm? We need to get out of there! I have a tournament to run!" he shot. Kira could hear the palpable panic bubbling up in his voice.

"Try not to tense up or it will be even harder to get out of those ropes."

Kira breathed deeply. As expected, the ropes around her wrist were loose and she would be able to slip out of them without much effort. Thank god their captors had fallen for her ruse. Kaiba hadn't been so smart.

" _Just what do you think you are doing!" He had demanded as their captors seized them and bound their wrists._

" _Taking you to meet our master of course," the masked figure had responded gruffly, securing the rope tightly around his wrists._

" _What do you want from me?!" he struggled against the restraints. Idiot! The last thing he should have done was try to put up any resistance. That would only anger their captors and make them more vigilant._

" _All in due time Mr. Kaiba. We're taking the girl too, the boss said no witnesses," he gestured in Kira's direction._

_She kept her elbows locked tightly into her sides, creating a curvature in her wrist while her captors tied knot after knot, giving the appearance of submissiveness._

" _There, they're all bound up sir!"_

" _Good, knock them out."_

_Kira's last memory was a rank-smelling cloth being stuffed against her face._

Those goons had been easy enough to fool. With that curvature in her wrists, she had managed to create some false space. She shimmied out of the ropes easily and dusted herself off before untying the knots around her legs. Easy peasy. It was amazing what a few extra millimeters of space could do.

"Aaargh!" she could hear Kaiba still struggling against his restraints. For a moment she was tempted to leave him here. After all, he had been incredibly rude to her.

_He may be a jerk but it wouldn't be right to abandon him._

Kira sighed and shook her head. Conscience demanded she helped him despite her dislike of him. She would try to be the bigger person here.

"Here, let me help you out," from the sound of his voice, she could trace Kaiba's location in the blackened room.

"How did you get out of the ropes?!" Kaiba growled incredulously. He had seen those thugs bind her up as securely as they had him. How was it possible that she had gotten out of them?

"Easy there or I won't help you," she hissed threateningly. She still had half a mind to leave him at the mercy of Scorpios after all the insults he had hurled at her. Though she found it was kind of difficult to hold it against someone who was all bound up and helpless.

Her threat was enough for the proud CEO to keep mum.

"There we go," she grinned as she had untied the last knots around his wrists. He owed her one after this! Kaiba must have pissed their captors off, for the knots around his wrist were bounded extra tight. They were definitely going to leave a mark.

Kaiba winced as he slipped the ropes off, grateful that he no longer felt their burn against his skin. For a moment, when Kira's deft fingers brushed against his skin, he had felt a tingle down his spine. The thought made a hot blush creep up his neck and he was thankful for the darkness around them.

"Well?" Kira huffed.

"What?"

"Are you going to thank me for getting you out of those ropes or shall I tie you up again?"

He glowered. On one hand, he hated this girl's guts but he had to admit she had managed to get him out of a pretty tight situation.

"Thank you," he mumbled reluctantly. "Now let's find a way to get out of here."

"I doubt we'll be getting out of this place anytime soon Kaiba," Kira gritted her teeth. Her fingers wandered across the walls around them. She could trace the outline of the door but it appeared it only opened from the outside. There was no way out of the room until their captors returned.

She could hear Kaiba beginning to breathe deeply behind her.

"We have to get out of here!" he pounded against the wall. A wave of nausea overcame his body and it felt as though teeth and claws were trying to pin his body to the ground. His lungs screamed for air.

 _No no no!_ He clutched at his head, willing the feeling of dread seizing his core to go away but to no avail. The darkness seemed to all but engulf him.

_I need to get out of there!_

Kira heard his knees hit the ground and it dawned on her that he was having a panic attack.

"Sit down," she ordered firmly, trying to steady him by placing her hand on his back. His shoulders were shaking hard.

_Not good._

"Seto, can you hear me?" she tried to soften her voice, mustering up as much empathy as she could for the man who had wrongfully accused her of sabotaging his tournament just hours before.

He grunted gruffly in reply.

"Everything's going to be ok, Seto. Just listen to my voice and follow what I say."

No reply.

"Breathe slowly…breathe through your diaphragm instead of your chest. There…like that. Can you cup your hands around your mouth? Breathe through that."

She heaved a sigh of relief as she heard his breathing slow to a normal speed.

"Good, everything's going to be alright. We're going to get out of here."

"Thank you," he mumbled weakly, slumping into a corner. His gratitude was genuine this time. He hated the darkness which was why even to this day, he slept with his nightlamp on. It was embarrassing but being alone in the darkness made him feel like it was going to swallow him whole.

"So…you're afraid of the dark huh?" he could almost picture the smug grin on Kira's face.

"Shut up Kira, leave me alone." His flushed red. He would not give her the pleasure of humiliating him!

She chuckled, her laughter ringing throughout the darkened room.

"Alright as you wish."

"What do we do now?"

"Wait for our captors to return. They have to come back for us eventually."

Silence.

He rested his head against the wall as his hands searched his pockets. Their captors had taken all their communication devices. Though they had left his duel disk and deck. He imagined this Scorpios fellow wanted to duel him. Fine by him.

There was really nothing left to do but wait.

The silence provided him with little respite.

"My sister is a big fan of yours you know," Kira's voice cut through the deafening silence.

"Huh?"

"When we were dueling earlier. You asked me why this tournament meant so much to me. I'm doing this for her."

"Hmph," he grunted. As if this story was supposed to mean anything to him.

"I wanted to show her I could be a true duelist," Kira's voice sounded hollow. "She's been trying to talk me out of those underground dueling rings for years. I thought…maybe if I could defeat you she would have been proud of me."

 _So that's the reason why she duels. For a sister._ His thoughts wandered to Mokuba, and the great lengths he had gone to rescue his little brother from danger in the past.

"Like you could have beaten me, Kira. I was about to destroy you."

"Never mind," Kira sighed. It was pointless trying to talk to him. "Forget I said anything."

"So how did you manage to get out of the ropes?" Kaiba changed the topic. Ordinarily, he was not one for conversation but for as long as their words flowed, it kept his mind off the suffocating darkness. Though talking about siblings was getting a bit too touchy-feely for him. He clutched at the card locket around his neck that contained the picture of the person he cared most about in the world – his little brother. Mokuba must have been worried sick by now.

"You said it yourself, I'm a 'delinquent'. I've been in a couple of tight situations, after some time you pick up some skills you know," her voice was laced with an edge of bitterness, taking him aback. He instantly regretted asking that question.

"Kira…" his voice trailed off, unsure of what he could say to diffuse the situation. There was something about being trapped in a dark room with a stranger that seemed to help foster feelings of empathy towards the other.

"It's okay."

He nodded mutely. He felt a tinge of sympathy for the girl. He could imagine her life wasn't easy. Those dueling rings were no place for a young woman.

Wha-? He shook his head. He was becoming soft.

" _Just because someone does something for you doesn't mean you owe them anything in return,"_ he chided himself. Rules were rules and Kira had clearly broken them. Even if she had extenuating circumstances, it didn't excuse her barging into his tournament. As far as he was concerned, even if they got off out this place alive, she was still disqualified.

"So, what's our plan?"

"Easy, we kick their asses and get the hell out of this place," Kira's voice was hard. "Though I have no clue where we are and I'm not sure how exactly we are supposed to get back."

An idea occurred to Kaiba. He reached for his jacket's collar, there sewn into lining was the secret mouthpiece he frequently used to communicate with his brother. Thank god their captors hadn't discovered it! He tapped at it, but there was no signal.

"We're underground Kira."

"How do you know?"

"I can't get any reception here. We have the most advanced servers in the world so the only logical explanation is that we're underground." He explained to her about the secret mouthpiece.

"So that means if we can get above ground, you can radio for help! How long do you reckon it will take for KaibaCorp to send us some backup?"

"Probably 20 minutes tops. We have a whole fleet of helicopters around the country for emergency situations."

"Good for us Money Bags, that makes things a lot easier. When they come back for us, they won't know we managed to free ourselves. We have the element of surprise on our side. Know any moves Kaiba?"

He rolled his eyeballs. Gozaburo had forced him to take self-defense classes as a kid. He never enjoyed them but he reckoned they had at least been useful in a pinch.

"Please, the question is whether you know any, Kira."

She howled in laughter at this, clutching at her sides.

"What's so funny?"

"Seto…I duel against the worst thugs and criminals in this city on a frequent basis. Trust me, I know how to kick them where it hurts."

He realized she had called him by his first name. No one other than Mokuba had done that. He opened his mouth to correct her but decided against it.

_Makes no difference._

The door creaked open, sending a ray of light streaming into the room. Kaiba winced and shielded his eyes. From the footsteps, he could tell there were at least two guards coming for them.

"Ready?" he saw Kira mouth.

"The Master will see you now," the voice said menacingly.

"YEOWWW!" Kira kneed the intruder hard in the groin, causing him to crumple to the ground. Cheap move but it had worked. Kaiba took her lead and lunged at the other attacker, grasping his arm in a vice-like grip and knocking him to the ground.

"Not so fast," the man hissed, raising himself up.

Kaiba hauled him up by the collar and dragged him against the wall.

"That's what you get for trying to mess with me," he spat as his fist collided with the man's face. He groaned and slumped to the ground.

"Let's lock them in the room. It will buy us some time before the others discover they are gone," Kira suggested, giving the man who attacked her a kick in the ribs for good measure. He howled in pain. Kaiba grimaced on his behalf. This girl knew how to be savage.

They slammed the door shut behind them as their attackers pounded at the door.

"You won't get away with this Seto Kaiba! You have no idea what the Master has in store for you!" an ominous cackle resounded through the door.

Then their master must not have met the wrath of Seto Kaiba before.

"Hmph, let's go, Kira."

His eyes adjusted to the light again. It appeared they were in some kind of underground facility. There was no one in sight around them. Good, they had some time to figure out an escape plan. There had to be a way out…

"I think we're in a bunker of some kind," Kira murmured.

"That way," he spied a trap door concealed into the ceiling. There was a ladder by the side which the pair quickly climbed.

The door pushed opened easily. Too easy, thought Kaiba.

"Here," he offered his hand to Kira as she tried to haul herself up - he couldn't help noticing how scrawny her arms were.

"I don't need your help," she swatted his hand away in annoyance. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself!

"Suit yourself." Somehow, Kira's rejection had stung a little.

The sun stretched over the horizon. Daybreak. Had they really been trapped in that bunker all night? He took in their surroundings. Though they might have escaped, they were trapped in the middle of nowhere. Around them loomed miles and miles of woodland. Kaiba tapped at his mouthpiece and it crackled to life.

"SETO! Where are you Big Brother!" Mokuba's voice came through on the other line.

"Calm down Mokuba. Can you get my coordinates from one of our KC satellites?"

"Yep! What happened? Please tell me you are alright." Mokuba sniveled. It sounded as though he had been crying. Kaiba sighed, he hated to worry his little brother.

"Good, I'll explain later. I need you to get a helicopter to my location as fast as you can."

"Already on that!"

"That was almost too easy," remarked Kira after she had finished sealing the entrance of the bunker.

"That's what I'm worried about," Kaiba grunted. "You'd think they would have better security after the effort they put into kidnapping us."

The trees above them rustled in the wind.

"Let's hope Mokuba gets here quickly," Kaiba muttered as he leaned against one of the trees. His eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. It had been a long and weary night…

A shrill laugh pierced through the forest.

"Not so fast, you're still our captives." A figure leaped down from the tree in front of him.

He groaned. Their escape had been way too easy. Of course it had been a trap!

"The Master thought the two of you might escape so he sent us. Unlike those two goons, we won't let you get away," another voice hissed.

"Who are you?!" Kaiba demanded, jumping to his feet.

"Pierre and Francine DuBois at your service. We represent Scorpios and we bring with us the wrath of God. Your destiny is sealed." The male intruder said. His tone had a haughty inflection to it. On his right stood a girl with long blonde hair. They were clearly twins. Dressed in finery that seemed too impractical for the wilderness they were in, both exuded an aura of aristocracy about them. And they both wore Duel Disks strapped around their wrists.

"Please, I've had enough of that destiny bullshit," he spat. The name DuBois was oddly familiar but he couldn't quite place it. "In case you didn't know, I'm an atheist."

"Our God is very real Seto Kaiba," the girl smirked. She could have been beautiful if not for the angry burn scar covering her right cheek. "He is the God of Justice. If you had not committed such great sins Seto Kaiba, God would not have us to punish you. Once we have carried out your sentence, there will be nothing left of you."

"Please," Kira growled, her features flashing with rage. She recognized the male voice as the figure she had seen on Domino Pier a few weeks ago. "You can't call what you do justice!"

"Hush little girl. You know nothing about what we do. I thought you got rid of her after our little altercation by the pier, dear brother," her voice dripped with disdain.

"I did Francine, but it looks like she is causing trouble for us again. I'll squash her once and for all, the Master will be pleased," Pierre replied gruffly. He bore similar marks on his face and arms. Kira seethed at him.

Kaiba shot Kira a questioning look. She certainly seemed acquainted with the siblings. Was this the run-in that she had mentioned earlier?

"I'll explain later, let's get rid of these two first."

"Not on my watch," Francine hissed as she activated her duel disk. A chain of emeralds coiled around her neck like a serpent. These two certainly came from money, thought Kira now that she had seen them in the light of day. Their last encounter had been under the cover of darkness so she hadn't been able to identify them clearly.

_And why would they throw everything away to join Scorpios?_

"Fine, I'll take you and your idiot brother on, you two don't stand a chance," Kaiba snarled, activating his Duel Disk.

"Me too," Kira's Duel Disk whirred to life.

"Stay out of this Kira, I can handle these two on my own!"

"No way! Like I said, they're dangerous. You don't even know the half of it! We'll stand a better chance together."

"I duel by myself, I don't need any backup! You'll only drag me down!"

"Stop being so arrogant for once Seto Kaiba!"

"Hmph, doesn't matter," Pierre snapped, arms folded across his muscular chest. His eyes glinted dangerously in the sunlight. Kira recoiled. From what she knew of him, she didn't think this guy was totally sane. "My sister and I make the best team there is. You see, what we have is a connection of the mind and soul, there is no way you can beat our teamwork and strategy! We'll rip you two apart!"

"Duel!"

**Turn 1: Francine DuBois**

"I'll start this duel off by summoning my Noble Knight Bedwyr to the field. Hope you are familiar with the legend of the Knights of the Round Table," Francine smirked, her red scar making her look particularly ferocious.

**Noble Knight Bedwyr [ATK: 1600/DEF: 1500]**

"Thanks to my Knight's special effect, I have to send 1 Noble Arms spell card from my deck to the graveyard."

"Doesn't seem so smart to be sending your equip spells to the graveyard," Kira cocked an eyebrow.

"Just you wait shrimp, we'll show you the true power of my Knights!" Pierre laughed cruelly.

"I don't have time for your fairy tales," Kaiba scoffed, holding his arms across her chest as her knight appeared on the playing field.

"That's where you're mistaken Seto Kaiba. My knights are called Knights of the Round Table because they sit around a round table instead of one that is rectangular. This means they are all equally powerful and worthy! They will be your undoing!"

"I'm quaking," Kaiba deadpanned. Those knights didn't look particularly threatening. Wait till they faced the wrath of his dragons! Even the medieval tales told of brave knights who fell to the fury of Dragonfire.

"Hmph, such insolence! Thanks to the effect of my Noble Knight Gawayn, I am able to summon it to the field in Defense Mode whenever I control a Light-type normal monster and Gawayn is one of the greatest knights in Camelot! You see Kaiba? My Knights help each other out, like how my brother and I support each other! You cannot defeat us!"

**Noble Knight Gawayn [ATK: 1900/DEF: 500]**

"I place 1 face-down card and end my turn."

**Turn 2: Seto Kaiba**

"Please, as if I am frightened by your knights," Kaiba rolled his eyeballs as he drew.

"Kaiba whatever you do, be careful! We don't know anything about these Knights. It could be a trap!" Kira hissed. Francine seemed confident of winning the battle – her face-down card could be dangerous if he were to launch an attack.

"I don't need your advice Kira," he snapped. He had the situation under control and wasn't about to take dueling advice from some amateur. "First I'll summon my Enraged Battle Ox to the field."

**Enraged Battle Ox [ATK: 1700, DEF: 1000]**

"Now attack Noble Knight Gawayn!"

**Enraged Battle Ox [ATK: 1700, DEF: 1000] - Noble Knight Gawayn [ATK: 1900/DEF: 500]**

The knight shattered into pieces. Kaiba smirked, he had hardly broken a sweat in destroying her weak monster. And that wasn't all…

"Thanks to the special effect of my beast, if it attacks a monster in Defence Mode, my opponent takes battle damage!"

**Francine DuBois LP: 4000 -2800**

"I'm impressed Kaiba. As expected of a duelist of your caliber." Francine did not look one bit perturbed. Kira was surprised she hadn't activated her face-down card to stop his attack.

"Hmph. I'll set a card face-down and end my turn."

**Turn 3: Pierre DuBois**

"I'll start by summoning Noble Knight Artorigus to join my sister's Knight on the field!"

**Noble Knight Artorigus [ATK: 1800/DEF:1800]**

"Next I'll equip it with Noble Arms Gallatin that was sent to the Graveyard by my sister thanks to Bedwyr's special effect! Now my Knight gains 1000 attack points!"

**Noble Knight Artorigus [ATK: 2800/DEF:1800]**

Kira gasped, no wonder Francine had seemed so calm. This was their strategy all along, enabling Pierre to summon such a powerful monster on his first turn!

"Now My Noble Knight, attack Kaiba's Battle Ox!"

"Not so fast, Pierre," Kaiba growled. "Activate my trap card Negate Attack. I'm safe from your Knight's Attack."

"Nice save Kaiba, seems like you covered your ass for this turn. But that won't help you for long! You can't even imagine the power that the Knights of Camelot hold!" Pierre's ominous laugh sent shivers down Kira's spine. She only hoped Kaiba hadn't underestimated these two.

**Turn 4: Kira Stieber**

"My turn! Draw!" Kira gritted her teeth. It was out of the question to attack Pierre, though she might have a shot at Francine's Knight. What could her face-down card be though? She would just have to take the risk.

"I call forth my mighty Alexandrite Dragon!"

**Alexandrite Dragon [ATK: 2000/DEF: 100]**

"Pretty my dear, but useless against my Knights. Just like you," Francine smirked, her dark green eyes twinkling maliciously as she gave the silver-haired girl a once-over.

"We'll see about that when I attack your Noble Knight Bedwyr!"

"You really are a bimbo Kira, activate my face-down card, Noble Arms Caliburn! My beast gains 500 Attack Points. I also gain 500 Life Points during each of my turns while this card is in play."

**Alexandrite Dragon [ATK: 2000/DEF: 100] - Noble Knight Bedwyr [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1500]**

"No!" Kira cried out as the knight decapitated her dragon in one smooth stroke.

**Kira Stieber LP: 4000 – 3900**

Kaiba gritted his teeth in rage. That idiot Kira had fallen into this woman's trap! No wonder she hadn't seemed perturbed at all when he wiped out a good chunk of her Life Points. She had this card up her sleeve…

"You'll be wide open for my attack next turn Kira, I'll have my Knight hack you to pieces!" Francine laughed, sending her long blonde tendrils flying everywhere.

"Not on my watch! I'll play my spell card Dragon's Charge! This lets me draw one card." Kira said a silent prayer as she drew.  _Please let it be a dragon!_

"Alright! Since I've drawn a dragon, I can summon it to the field! Meet Axe Dragonute! I'll set him in Defence Mode and end my turn with 1 face-down card."

**Axe Dragonute [ATK: 2000/DEF: 1200]**

"Nice save Kira, but next time don't fall into our enemy's trap. I told you that you would only be a burden!" Kaiba snapped.

"It's not like you knew about those Noble Arms' effects before this turn!" she shot back.

**Turn 5: Francine DuBois**

**Francine DuBois LP: 2800 -3300**

"My turn! Hmm, who should I attack? Well if I attack Kaiba, I'll be able to take out some of his Life Points. And he has no face-down cards to protect him. But on the other hand, you've pissed me off Kira…I've made up my mind! Noble Knight Bedwyr, attack Kira's Axe Dragonute!"

' _Idiot,'_ thought Kaiba. Now his Battle Ox was safe and he could tribute it to summon a stronger monster on his turn.

Her Axe Dragonute disappeared from the field, but thankfully she took no battle damage.

"I'll end my turn with summoning another Noble Knight to the field. Come forth Noble Knight Mordred!"

**Noble Knight Mordred [ATK: 1700/DEF: 1000]**

"I'll also equip him with Noble Arms Gallatin in case you were thinking about destroying him."

**Noble Knight Mordred [ATK: 2700/DEF: 1000]**

'Mordred now becomes a dark type monster. You'll know him as the traitor that defeated King Arthur. I'll place one card face-down and end my turn now," Francine smirked. "Your move Seto Kaiba."

**Turn 6: Seto Kaiba**

Kaiba gritted his teeth and drew his next card. The siblings now controlled extremely powerful beasts now thanks to the effect of their Equip spells. He needed to draw a powerful enough monster to destroy one of theirs.

"I'll play Pot of Greed! Allowing me to draw two more cards."

Not his strongest monster but it would work!

"I'll sacrifice my Battle Ox to play Luster Dragon #2!"

**Luster Dragon #2 [ATK: 2400/DEF: 1400]**

Pierre laughed.

"That thing is no match for my Noble Knight, I'll crush you on your next turn, Kaiba."

"Your monster is only powerful because of its equip card! What if I removed it? Activate spell card Mystical Space Typhoon! Destroy his spell card Noble Arms Gallatin! Now my dragon is more powerful than your beast!"

Pierre burst into another fit of laughter.

"Idiot!" he chortled. "Let me tell you about Gallatin's special effect! If it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I can target 1 Noble Knight I control and equip it to my target! And I choose to re-equip my Noble Knight Artorigus!"

**Noble Knight Artorigus [ATK: 2800/DEF:1800]**

Kira gasped. Those things were pretty much indestructible then! This could mean bad news…

"I'll cut down your Dragon on the next turn Kaiba!"

"I set one card face-down," Kaiba glowered. The card he had set was Attack Reversal, just let Pierre try to attack.

**Turn 7: Pierre DuBois**

"I'll start by summoning another Noble Knight! Come forth Noble Knight Gawayn!"

**Noble Knight Gawayn [ATK: 1900/DEF: 500]**

"I'll then send him to the graveyard to call forth my Ignoble Knight of Black Lancelot!"

**Ignoble Knight of Black Lancelot [ATK: 2000/DEF: 800]**

"Now attack Kira's Life Points directly!"

**Kira Stieber – LP: 3900 – 1900**

The shockwaves sent Kira flying back. Damn it! Her Life Points had dropped dangerously low. She would get the siblings back on her next turn!

"Good, now Artorigus, attack Kaiba's Luster Dragon #2!"

"Activate spell card Attack Reversal! Now our monsters switch Attack Points! So it is your Knight that is destroyed!"

**Noble Knight Artorigus [ATK: 2400/DEF:1800] - Luster Dragon #2 [ATK: 2800/DEF: 1400]**

**Pierre Dubois – LP: 4000 - 3600**

"Hmph, nice move Kaiba, that was exactly what I wanted you to do! Activate face-down card Fountain in the Sky! Whenever a light-type monster is destroyed, I can banish it from the graveyard and add its attack points to my Life Points!" Pierre cackled, a crazed look crossing his face. "Guess God really does reward the good!"

**Pierre Dubois – LP: 3600 – 6000**

Kaiba cursed under his breath. So it had been a trap, Pierre wanted him to attack! Their Noble Knights were mostly light-type monsters, so it would be no use to attack any of them. That only left Mordred and Lancelot…

He shot Kira a look. She had better not screw this up!

**Turn 8: Kira Stieber**

"Look I'm not a religious person, but I don't think God would approve of what you are trying to do here!" Kira hissed as she drew. Pierre's last comment had really gotten on her nerves.

"Why not?" Francine countered. "We are bringing justice to the world."

"What you do is not justice!" The memory of what she had seen on that pier still haunted her dreams. That man had met a very pitiful end. Sure he was scum, but even he didn't deserve what the twins had inflicted upon him. The DuBois siblings merely laughed.

Kira gritted her teeth. Fine, perhaps if she destroyed their favorite monsters they would take her seriously. She had a combo in mind to attack their beasts.

"I'll start by summoning my Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit! I am allowed to do so because my opponents control monsters but I have none. Thank you Francine for taking out my dragon because now I have a more powerful one!"

**Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1400]**

"Now my Dragon attack the Ignoble Knight of Black Lancelot!"

**Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1400] - Ignoble Knight of Black Lancelot [ATK: 2000/DEF: 800]**

**Pierre DuBois LP: 6000 - 5900**

"Then I'll activate my trap, Dragon's Descent! This lets me summon one Level 4 or lower Dragon from my hand! The Dragon I choose is Luster Dragon!"

**Luster Dragon [ATK: 1900/DEF: 1600]**

"Still too puny!" Francine sneered.

"Not for long! I am planning on destroying your Knight this turn! I play my spell card Shrink! Now Noble Knight Mordred's Attack Points will be halved!

**Noble Knight Mordred [ATK: 2700/DEF: 1000] - Noble Knight Mordred [ATK: 1850/DEF: 1000]**

"Luster Dragon attack!"

**Luster Dragon [ATK: 1900/DEF: 1600] - Noble Knight Mordred [ATK: 1850/DEF: 1000]**

**Francine DuBois LP: 3300 – 3250**

**Turn 9: Francine DuBois**

**Francine DuBois LP: 3250 -3750**

Drat, the effect of Caliburn was still in play! Kira gritted her teeth. But at least she had taken out two of their powerful monsters. Hopefully, it would be enough to turn the duel around...Francine and Pierre laughed. It was a cruel and empty sound that reverberated throughout the forest.

"What's so funny?" Kaiba demanded.

"Thank you for destroying Lancelot and Mordred Kira," Francine smirked.

"What do you mean?!"

"We'll have to go back in history for that! Are you aware of the story of the treacherous Knight Lancelot? He was one of King Arthur's most faithful servants until of course his affair with Queen Guinevere put an end to that. This led to the traitor Mordred starting a civil war. Of course, the Knights of the Round Table weren't too happy about this!"

"What is the point of your story? Cut to the chase!" Kaiba growled, his patience wearing thin.

"Sometimes you need to go through the darkness before you can see the light. You see, when Mordred and Lancelot, 2 dark type monsters are in my graveyard, I can play my spell card Noble Knights of the Round Table! This has devastating effects. Those with hearts of darkness will always meet their sorry end!" Pierre's eyes glinted dangerously in the sunlight.

"Activate spell card Noble Knights of the Round Table!"

Kira gasped as Francine and Pierre's knights began to gather around the table. What was going on? Even the Knights that had been sent to the Graveyard were present! The Knights stared at them, their eyes glowering intensely.

"One last thing before the ritual is complete," Francine smirked. "I summon Merlin!"

**Merlin [ATK: 1400/DEF: 500]**

The wizen-looking spell-caster appeared onto the field. Kira wrinkled the nose. He didn't seem too intimidating…

"When Merlin and my Knights are all gathered, I can perform the Ritual of Light to summon King Arthur! Now my Noble Knights, I thank thee for your noble sacrifice!"

The knights began to leave the playing field in a flash of light.

"Arise o great King Arthur!"

**King Arthur [ATK: 4000/DEF: 4000]**

The great king was dressed in a suit of imposing black armor. But no sword. Strange thought Kira, the King was usually associated with his sword Excalibur, unless of course Francine had yet to equip it and his powers could increase!

"Fortunately for you, King Arthur cannot attack this turn. I'll just end my turn now."

She shot Kaiba a look. They were in trouble if they didn't do something now!

**Turn 10: Seto Kaiba**

Kaiba drew. He would stake everything on this turn. It was always at the last moment that he drew the card that would turn things around. He didn't really understand what Kira and those two idiots were yacking about, but he intended to question Kira long and hard about this after they had won this duel. His deck never let him down!

Inhaling sharply, he looked down at the card.

_Card of Demise._

Good, he could assemble the cards he needed to win this duel.

"I play Card of Demise, allowing me to draw until I have 5 cards in my hand!"

 _Come forth my dragons._ He could already feel the power of his three Blue Eyes White Dragons lurking in his deck.

He closed his eyes as he drew. He still didn't buy that Heart of the Cards bullshit that Yugi and friends liked to spew, but if there was one thing be believed in, it was in the power of the deck he had assembled. It never let him down! He smirked as he gazed at his hand.  _Perfect._

"First, I'll destroy your Fountain in the Sky with Stamping Destruction! Now you take 500 points of damage and you can't replenish your Life Points anymore!"

**Pierre DuBois – LP: 5900 - 5400**

"Now I activate spell card Polymerisation! This allows me to fuse the 3 Blue Eyes White Dragons in my hand!" There, his hand was depleted. He would stake everything on his ultimate beast!

"Come forth Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

**Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon [ATK: 4500, DEF: 3800]**

Kira heaved a sigh of relief. Good! At least Kaiba could turn this duel around! His dragon had more attack points than Francine's King!

"Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Crush her King with White Lightning Blast!"

Francine laughed, wiping the tears of mirth from her eyes.

"You see, from the moment I summoned Mordred, I intended you to defeat him and allow me to summon King Arthur. I placed one card face-down then, don't you remember?"

_No!_

"That card was my spell card Excalibur, the Sword in the Stone! I can only activate this card when an attack is declared on King Arthur. Only King Arthur is able to pull out this great sword and it grants him the blessings of God itself! You see, he was the chosen King! Just like how we were chosen to carry out this mission. Now I activate this card and equip it to King Arthur, so that he may fulfill his legacy!"

King Arthur reached into the stone and pulled out the sword with ease. His battle cry reverberated throughout the playing field.

**King Arthur [ATK: 5000/DEF: 4000]**

"Destroy his dragon, my King!" Francine thundered.

"No Kaiba!" Kira cried out, but it was too late to stop the attack.

**Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon [ATK: 4500, DEF: 3800] - King Arthur [ATK: 5000/DEF: 4000]**

**Seto Kaiba LP: 4000 – 3500**

He flinched from the shockwaves of the attack as his dragon was cut in half. Curse that Francine DuBois!

"You see! Justice will be served!" Pierre cackled.

**Turn 11: Pierre DuBois**

"Stop it!" Kira cried, her voice thundering through the forest. "I've had enough of your twisted sense of justice! You two grew up in one of the most privileged families in the world! You don't have a right to be mad at the world!"

"Don't have a right?" Pierre growled, his eyes flashing dangerously. He took a step forward. "Do you know how my sister and I got these scars, Kira?"

 _DuBois._ No wonder the name had seemed so familiar at first, Kaiba thought. The DuBois were well-known philanthropists who had donated billions to charity. What were the two DuBois heirs doing out here in the middle of nowhere? And how were they connected to Scorpios?

"I'll tell you," Pierre continued menacingly. Kira took a step back. The crazed look in his eyes sent shivers done her spine.

"Two years ago, our family decided to build a children's hospital in Syria. We were always very passionate about humanitarian work. My brother and I wanted to go down to the hospital, to see for ourselves how we had benefitted the lives of the people there. Little did we know of the horrors that awaited us," Francine said, a lone tear dripping down her scarred cheek.

"While we were there, the enemy decided to launch an air strike on the hospital. It was such an underhanded and cruel move! Those were innocent children! I cannot even find the words to describe the suffering and pain that followed. All I remember are the screams piercing through the air and the smell of smoke and ashes when the crying finally stopped. My brother and I were barely able to escape with our lives. But of course, we were DuBois so they gave us the best care there was. As for the children, they weren't so lucky."

"That incident taught us that there is no such thing as justice unless you seize it! Money isn't enough, only when you have true power can you ensure that there is justice in the world! Scorpios found us soon after, and we have pledged our lives to the cause. We will bring back justice into this cold cruel world, and we will start by ridding it of the sinners who have caused so much pain and suffering to others!" Pierre continued.

"But that's not true justice! Your kind of justice just breeds more and more revenge until it becomes a long chain of hatred!" Kira replied indignantly. "It'll never stop…"

"Save it. You can stop preaching to me. I know what I am fighting for," she spat. "And deep down, you know what we are doing is right. You're the one that takes the cards of the opponents you defeat, the infamous Robin Hood of the underground dueling world."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. He had a good mind to question Kira thoroughly about her past.

"That's different," Kira snapped. "The punishment fit the crime. They had to be taught a lesson."

"And our punishment doesn't? What about the cruel dictators and murderers that kill by the hundreds each day? Those people belong to the shadows! We are cleansing this world of its evils. The shadows will be our servant until we can achieve true light in the world. You should be on our side, Miss Weiss. After what happened with your father, I thought perhaps you would be more aligned with our mission. It's a pity you refuse to join us." Francine's voice was like ice.

"Never. Your need for vengeance has clouded your sense of discernment. And don't you dare bring my father into this!" Kira's voice trembled. Her eyes widened in shock. How could these two have known about her father? The half-buried memories burned at the back of her mind. "You people don't have the right to play God!"

"Forgive me, but you are sounding more and more like a hypocrite," Francine fumed. "Why are you fighting with Kaiba, Miss Weiss? He may not have pulled the trigger but he had a big part to play in the deaths of those children in Syria! It was KaibaCorp missiles they used after all. His heart is pure evil! He deserves everything that is coming to him!"

 _Weiss?_ The name rang a bell. _Kira's last name is Steiber unless that's a fake name. And Scorpios recruited her to join them?_ He narrowed his eyes at her, he had so many questions for her. And how could those two blame him for what Gozaburo had done? KaibaCorp didn't even manufacture weapons anymore! They were a gaming company for crying out loud. What had happened to them was no doubt tragic, but he couldn't be held liable for their losses.

"Enough Francine!" Kira bristled with rage. Those two had gone too far with their antiquated sense of justice now…

"How can you blame Kaiba for what his father did? He may be arrogant and full of himself but he's not responsible for those war crimes of which you speak! Seto Kaiba has tried to do a lot of good with his company. His games bring enjoyment to people around the world and he builds theme parks for the less fortunate. A man with a truly evil heart wouldn't do things like that. I believe he has a good heart deep down. Your judgment of him isn't fair!"

_Why is she defending me?_

Kaiba's eyes widened at what Kira had just said. He was used to people hurling all kinds of accusations at him, but no one had ever spoken up for him like that. He wasn't quite sure what to feel about that.

"Kira…" a lump swelled at the back of his throat.

"Even so, the son must pay for the crimes of the father," snarled Pierre. "Besides our Master would like to have a chat with him, I believe he has a score he would like to settle. Kaiba you were the pharaoh that brought about the destruction of Egypt in your past life you know. As for you Kira, you can live with the consequences of your choice! I'll pass my turn. There's nothing you can do but await your doom!"

**Turn 12: Kira Stieber**

Kira drew, reeling from the sibling's words. The world they imagined was one of hatred and cruelty.  _And what was the part about Kaiba being a pharaoh in a past life? Weird..._

 _I'm nothing like them,_ she thought bitterly. But Francine's statement nagged at the back of her mind.  _Was she?_

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts and gazed at the card she had drawn. It was Raigeki! She was going to use it against Kaiba in their last duel. It could work against the King!

"I play Raigeki! Say goodbye to your King!"

A flash of lightning struck across the playing field but when it came near King Arthur, he merely raised his sword to absorb the lightning blast.

"No!" Kira exclaimed. "It should have destroyed your King!"

"Fool! Excalibur makes King Arthur invincible! He is a God amongst men! Spell and trap cards cannot destroy the King!" Pierre howled with laughter.

"I play Swords of Revealing Light!" It would buy them 3 turns at least. There had to be a way out of this! She refused to admit defeat so easily.

"You don't have a monster powerful enough to save you!" cackled Francine. "It's no use what you do! King Arthur will cut your monsters down!"

_Maybe Francine is right._

Kira held no monster cards in her hand, and while she and Kaiba still controlled their dragons, none of their monsters were powerful enough. Even if they could last through the next 3 turns, they were at a dead end when King Arthur could attack. And she couldn't keep playing on the defense if they were to win this duel. She didn't think Kaiba had anything left that could counter King Arthur either. After all, he had just lost his most powerful monster…

She could use the card in her hand to call forth one of the most powerful beasts in her deck but its attack strength was still much lower than the King. It was a hopeless situation…

 _A monster powerful enough to beat the King!_  She grinned. She had an idea but it would depend on Kaiba's cooperation. She knew he had the card they needed in his deck…

_Please if there is truly a God, let Kaiba draw the card we need!_

"I place two cards face-down and end my turn."

**Turn 13: Francine DuBois**

"Pass," she snickered as she drew. "It's too late for you two to turn this duel around!"

**Turn 14: Seto Kaiba**

This was getting ridiculous. There was no such thing as past-lives and reincarnation! First Ishizu Ishtar, then Yugi and now these two dweebs. Why did everyone keep insisting he had a past-life in ancient Egypt? They were just trying to mess with his head.

He flashed Kira an irritated look. Why had she set those face-down cards? King Arthur couldn't be destroyed by spell or trap cards. And if she were stalling again, it would be of much use. One blast from that King would destroy her dragon and send her Life Points counter to 0.

"Kaiba, we can't defeat King Arthur on our own, but we can do it  _together_ ," she placed emphasis on the last word, hoping he would take the hint. She hoped with bated breath the card he held in his hands was the one they needed.

He scowled, he depended on his own strength to win his duels. But then, none of their monsters on the field were strong enough individually to take down the King…He gazed at the card in his hand. Monster Reborn. He could revive his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon but what use would it be?

 _Together…_ A flash of realization struck him as he surveyed the playing field. He gave Kira a knowing look, who smiled and nodded.

_Kira, maybe you aren't the amateur I thought you were after all!_

"Do it," she said firmly. "It's our only chance."

He nodded, he would trust her this one time.

"Pierre and Francine, watch carefully, this is how a real duelist wins his duels!"

"You're bluffing!"

"Am I?" Kaiba smirked. "First I'll start by playing Monster Reborn! I'll bring back my Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

**Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon [ATK: 4500, DEF: 3800]**

"I applaud you for your valiant effort but your dragon is not powerful enough to face my King!" Francine seethed.

"Not for long," Kira smirked. "Reveal my face-down card! Polymerisation! Kaiba's dragon consists of 3 dragons, and I control 2. You know what this means!"

**Luster Dragon [ATK: 1900/DEF: 1600]**

**Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1400]**

**Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon [ATK: 4500, DEF: 3800]**

Their dragons roared ferociously in unison.

"I fuse Kaiba's and my dragons together to bring forth the Five-Headed Dragon!"

**Five-Headed Dragon [ATK: 5000, DEF: 5000]**

"No!" Francine cried out, sinking to her knees. Pierre raced to her side to steady her.

"FIVE-HEADED ATTACK!"

**Five-Headed Dragon [ATK: 5000, DEF: 5000] - King Arthur [ATK: 5000/DEF: 4000]**

Both the dragon and King Arthur disappeared from the playing field in a flash of white lightning.

"You jerks!" Pierre hissed threateningly. "But our Life Points are still untouched! Your dragon can't attack again on this turn, we can still turn this duel around!"

"Not if I activate my spell card Defusion!" Kira smirked, revealing the other face-down card.

**Luster Dragon [ATK: 1900/DEF: 1600]**

**Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit [ATK: 2100/DEF: 1400]**

**Blue Eyes White Dragon [ATK: 3000, DEF: 2500]**

**Blue Eyes White Dragon [ATK: 3000, DEF: 2500]**

**Blue Eyes White Dragon [ATK: 3000, DEF: 2500]**

"No!" Pierre's eyes widened in horror.

Kira nodded at Kaiba. Now they had everything the needed to finish these two off.

"Alright, my 3 Blue Eyes, obliterate with White Lightning Blast!"

**Pierre DuBois – LP: 5400 – 0**

He slumped to the ground as his Life Points hit 0.

**Turn 15: Kira Stieber**

"Francine, it is not too late to surrender," Kira said calmly. The blond girl only held her head up haughtily, still cavalier despite her impending defeat.

"Go Luster Dragon and Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit, attack Francine directly and end this duel," she said softly, feeling a tinge of sympathy for the blonde in the process.

**Francine DuBois – LP: 3750 – 0**

**Victors – Seto Kaiba and Kira Stieber**

"It's over," Kira mumbled, retracting her Duel Disk and taking in the scene. They siblings lay slumped on the ground. Despite their victory, she didn't feel very triumphant. The DuBois siblings had been victims too.

"Explain to me what is going on Kira," Kaiba muttered, slotting his deck into his coat pocket. He had too many questions for her. Was she even who she claimed to be? "Start from the very beginning."

"I'll get there in time, it's a long story," she sighed, dread slowly filling her. She would really have to tell him everything. But where to start?

"Now." His arms were folded impatiently across his chest. "How are you connected to those two? And what do they want with me?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Kira spied Pierre getting up from the ground. He reached into his coat pocket and brandished a small handgun.

"For Scorpios," he said weakly, aiming the gun at Kaiba.

"SETO GET DOWN!" Kira's first instinct was to shove him out of the way, sending him sprawling. Kaiba's head collided hard with the ground.

 _No! Kira!_ She had just put herself in the bullet's path. He wanted to call out to her but his muscles felt as though they had been turned to lead.

_Kira you idiot!_

A flash of white filled the scene. And the last thing Kaiba remembered seeing was the figure of a Blue Eyes White Dragon appearing in front of them. It shrieked imposingly, before releasing a terrifying burst of white light from its mouth.

 _Impossible,_ he thought as he felt his eyelids getting heavier by the second.  _That's not my dragon._

_Kira! She must have summoned it!_

The thunderous screech reverberated throughout the whole forest.

" _Lord Seto! Let me protect you with my light!"_ the dragon seemed to say.

End of Chapter 7


	8. The White Dragon

The white dragon emerged from her dwelling place within her host's spirit.

" _Forgive me, Kira, I did not mean to take over like that."_ The dragon thought mournfully as she gazed at her host's unconscious form. She watched the rise and fall of the girl's chest – the girl would live, but would her mind be intact? She had never attempted to do so before and the dragon feared the girl's mind would forever be destroyed in the process. A nurse fussed about her host, propping her head upright on the pillow. The dragon sighed and draped her wings tenderly around the girl, willing her to open her eyes soon.

_Please wake up Kira._

The dragon was as ancient as the great pyramids of Egypt. She vaguely remembered that she had once been the peasant girl called Kisara in the days of the Great Pharaoh Atem. Though as time passed, she had become less and less of the girl and her memories of that previous life had slowly turned to dust.

She remembered being sealed into her tablet.

Her world had been bright before she was thrust violently into a cold and silent darkness.

There was no light in this new world, except whenever her master called her forth. But with the passage of time, he too had departed from the world of the living, as all mortals must, leaving her alone in her tablet. It was a lonely existence, but she had her memories of him to keep her company in her grief.

" _The light that shines through the darkness is love,"_ Seto's words would forever be engraved upon her heart.

She had clung onto his memory fiercely, grasping at it with all her might and repeating his words over and over again in her mind until she had assuaged herself of the fear that she would forget him. She refused to let that memory fade – it was only for one reason that she existed, to protect Lord Seto from whatever harm may befall him.

The dragon's greatest sorrow was that she was unable to join her master in the afterlife. The gates of Duat were closed to her now that she had taken this form. She would have tried to bargain with Osiris if she could, but as she was entombed in her stone tablet, she had no voice of her own of which to speak, let alone beg the gods of Egypt for clemency.

Before she had met Seto, she had believed that she would forever be alone in this world. She was born alone, lived alone and she would die alone. But his presence had changed all of that. Seto had become her pillar of strength and the source of her courage. Meeting him had been the greatest blessing of her life.

_Lord Seto, no matter where you are, I will find you and protect you always._ That had been her promise to him and she was determined to keep it always. Thousands of years had passed by as she slumbered alone in her tablet, until one day she felt her heart begin to stir again.

_Seto! He's come back to the mortal world._

The feeling was unmistakable as her bond with her master was eternal. His presence filled her heart, renewing her weary spirit like how the Nile flooded its banks and brought life back to its arid soil. But alas, he was so far away and out of her reach. She had wept silently at that, sure of the fact that she would be condemned to this stone tablet forever, never to see him again.

Until one day, someone entered the shrine.

"Come over here Maximillian! You'll like what I found!" a voice called out in an accent she didn't understand.

"What is it, Phillip? Oh my god….that's…" the other man's voice had died in his throat.

"What a magnificent creature," a third voice breathed. It was a female voice and it had a soft, gentle quality to it.

The dragon stirred, sensing a powerful light emitting from the woman.

_A light glows deep within her. Light - the first sign of life. She carries the spirit of another within her!_

The light of the new spirit shone intensely. The dragon could instantly sense it was a powerful spirit - one that was capable of carrying the soul of a dragon within it.

She uttered a prayer to the Old Gods of Egypt in her heart, seeking their forgiveness. What she was about to do was no doubt forbidden by the Gods, but it would be the only way for her to reunite with Seto.

_She had to protect her master…_

With all her might, she broke free of her restraints and burst forth with a bright light, fusing with the new soul in the woman's womb. A light shot out of her tablet, sending the woman flying backward.

"Ahhh!" she called out.

"Marie!" one of the male voices called out. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine….did you guys just see that flash of light from the tablet?" the woman named Marie exclaimed.

" _Forgive me,"_ the dragon whispered from within her new vessel in the woman's womb.

_My Lord Seto, when the time is right, I seek you out and I will be by your side to protect you from any danger!_

The door of the room creaked open, startling the dragon from her thoughts.

A young man in a gray suit entered the room and stood over her host's sleeping form. The dragon could see he had a bandage taped to the right-side of his forehead.

_Yes, it's him!_ There was no mistaking Seto's sharp aquiline features and strong, tall build. The man's deep-set blue eyes shone with intelligence, just like his Egyptian predecessor's had. Though the dragon could detect a sadness behind this man's eyes. There was a certain hardness to the man that stood before her that had not been present in  _her_ Seto.

_What happened to you, Seto?_ The dragon thought sorrowfully. She longed to wrap her wings around him.

"Mr. Kaiba sir!" the nurse leaped up.

"What's the status of the patient?" Seto's reincarnation asked harshly in a cold, icy tone that shattered the dragon's heart.

"Her vital stats are ok, but we can't get her to wake up," the nurse cowered, fearing the wrath of the man before her.

_Seto…you were never like this before! You were never unkind…_

"Leave us," the man named Kaiba ordered, a scowl crossing his otherwise handsome features.

After the nurse had scurried out of the room, he sighed and plopped himself down on the seat next to the bed.

"What am I going to do with you, Kira? You are a truly a mystery to me…" he sighed wearily.

The dragon felt something stir within her host's heart. She had tried to be as unobtrusive as possible when it came to the girl's thoughts and feelings but due to their mental link, she felt each and every one of the girl's emotions as if they were her own. The girl's feelings towards this man were well…mixed. The dragon could sense a part of her disliked him, but there was another part of her heart yet unbeknownst that carried a great admiration for this man.

"Kira you really are an idiot you know," Kaiba muttered, folding his arms across his chest. "First, why would you try and take a bullet for a stranger? I don't understand…"

At this, the dragon felt something tense up within her host. The dragon smiled, there was her strong fighting spirit! Even while unconscious, the girl did not take well to being insulted.

"And there is the issue of the bullet… Roland combed the area afterward, they found the gun in Pierre's hand, but no bullet. I heard the gunshot, so he definitely pulled the trigger! But you have no bullet wounds…how is that possible? Am I going crazy?"

"More importantly, how the hell did you summon a Blue Eyes White Dragon? It couldn't have been mine as my deck was in my coat pocket. The only logical explanation is that it was in your deck! HOW?!" he clutched his head in his hands in exasperation. The dragon reached out one of her wings and patted him gently on the back. He couldn't see her, but she thought she could comfort him in her own way.

_He's so much like Seto, but also not quite like._

Kaiba got up from his seat. The soles of his shoes click-clacked against the floor as he paced the room in frustration.

The dragon hung her head in anguish.

_I couldn't let you die, Seto…_

She had taken over the girl's body the very moment she had seen the bullet leave the gun's barrel. A deep rage had filled her in that instant as she released a beam of blazing white light at the perpetrator. No one tried to harm her master and got away with it!

_And now Kira won't wake up…By Osiris, what have I done?!_ The dragon thought in despair, her gaze landing on her host. She shouldn't have tried to take over the girl's body like that, not if it had meant putting the girl's life in peril.

"Tell me…who are you really Kira? What is your connection to all that has been going on?!" Kaiba demanded. "There so many pieces of this puzzle and I can't fit them together!" His fist slammed into the wall.

_Kaiba…_

"I…I'm…s…s…sorry…Alini," Kira murmured. The dragon shot up. She was awake! Thank the Gods!

The dragon could feel her host dreaming about her sister again. Of late, that was all her host had thought about. She felt a pang of pain in her chest for her host's sister. Little Alini was in a precarious condition – the doctors had said her chances of survival were slim if she didn't get the treatment she needed soon. That was why she had whispered in Kira's heart to take part in this tournament – the dragon had sensed the danger her beloved's reincarnation was in and she would get the chance to protect him while Kira would get the prize money Alini needed. The girl had acquiesced.

"Alini?" Kaiba's brow furrowed. His eyes widened in realization when it dawned on him that Alini was the name of Kira's sister.

"Kira…" he said, walking over to her side. The hard expression on his face softened a little.

"K…Kaiba?" Kira mumbled blearily as she came to. "Where…where am I?"

"You're in the medical room, you passed out, don't you remember?"

Kira shook her head.

"What's going on?"

"You tell me…I have so many questions for you."

Kira grunted softly as she propped herself up on the pillow. The dragon saw Kaiba reaching out his hand to help her before quickly retracting his hand.

"Time to talk Miss Steiber, or is it Miss Weiss?"

Kira winced at this.

"Must you do this now Kaiba?" she sighed. Talk about impatience. She had barely woken up and he was demanding answers of her already. The dragon felt irritation rising in her host and an old hurt opening in her chest. The girl had a penchant for burying her feelings deep within her heart. The sorrow of the past few years had weighed heavily on her soul.

"I can come back later," Kaiba said curtly, turning to go.

"No…it's fine, I'll tell you what you want to know," Kira sighed, sitting up straight. Her entire body ached. She might as well speak to him now since she couldn't avoid it forever.

"From the beginning Kira, who are you really? Clearly, your name is not Kira Stieber like you claimed…It's Kira Weiss isn't it?" Kaiba said, his face betraying no emotion.

"Don't say that name, it's cursed," Kira felt tears burning at the back of her eyes. Strange, she thought she had buried her family's tragic past deep within the depths of her heart. How come it still hurt to talk about it?

_Weiss…_ Kaiba's eyes shot up.  _Not that family!_  The Weisses had been one of the first investors in Maximillian Pegasus' Industrial Illusions. They had been Wall Street royalty until Marie Weiss's tragic accident and Phillip's Weiss subsequent unraveling…

"You remember huh?" Kira's voice was meek. "It made headlines everywhere…"

Kaiba nodded mutely. It had been a tragedy of epic proportions. He remembered watching the news with his stepfather one day when the headlines flashed on the screen:

" **Millionaire Phillip Weiss tries to kill children in attempted murder-suicide!"**

"Hmph, I always knew that uptight Phillip Weiss was just one step away from the looney bin," Gozaburo had muttered as his dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. Little Seto had been horrified at the news and he had lain in bed that night, wide awake, shuddering in horror. What kind of parent tried to kill their own flesh and blood?

_Kira and her sister must have survived then._ The news reports had made no mention of the eventual fate of the two Weiss children.

"I..I'm…"

"It's okay Kaiba, you wanted the truth and now you have it. I'm the late Phillip Weiss's daughter. After the incident, my sister and I were sent to an orphanage. No one would adopt us, not after what happened. They had to release me when I turned eighteen so I became my sister's legal guardian. I changed our last name to Stieber after."

He said nothing. What words could he possibly offer her?

"You probably want to know more about Scorpios too huh?"

"I…"

It was rare to see Seto Kaiba at a loss for words. Kira knew he pitied her and she almost wished he would say something snarky to her instead. Anything was better than pity.

"You know about the underground dueling ring so I'll skip over that part. One day, I received a letter asking me to turn up at Domino Pier. That's how the ring works, you get a message telling you to appear at a certain location and you just show up to face your opponent…Only by the time I got to the pier, someone had already beaten me to it."

"Pierre and Francine?" Kaiba raised his eyebrow. Kira nodded.

"Pierre was dueling my supposed opponent. The guy had a well-known drug dealer…quite the low-life, most of the people who dueled the ring were. But it wasn't a normal duel…" Kira's voice trailed off as she tried to find the right words to explain what she had seen.

"Not normal how?" Kaiba demanded.

"It seemed like the game was taking place in the shadows…I know it's crazy by there was this dark force surrounding them…Pierre won and he…well he said it was a "shadow game" so his opponent had to pay the price for losing. He said he would be punished for the crimes he had committed. Pierre…he summoned this giant scorpion _thing_! It didn't look like it was Solid Vision…it was so…real. The scorpion devoured the poor man…" Kira closed her eyes, feeling a strong urge to retch. The screams still reverberated in her mind.

The scorpion had spit the man out after, but the man's eyes were dead and vacant.

" _Another evil soul back where he belongs, in the shadows!" Pierre had exclaimed proudly before his eyes locked with hers._

" _Hello there, Miss Weiss…Scorpios has been waiting for you." he had said, sending shivers down her spine. Kira's first instinct was to turn and run but she had stood rooted to the ground, unable to move a muscle._

Kaiba snorted. It was a ridiculous story to hear her tell it.

"Did they mention something about the Millennium Items too?" he asked sarcastically, certain this was all an elaborate ruse.

"Millennium what?"

"Never mind. Are you sure you weren't hallucinating?"

"Kaiba! I'm serious! I know it's hard to believe…but I think they were using some kind of shadow magic!"

"Magic doesn't exist!" Kaiba insisted vehemently. Did Kira hit her head too hard when she collapsed?

_Oh, you poor fool,_ thought the dragon as she wrapped her wings around her host's trembling shoulders. She had seen what her host had seen and didn't blame the girl for her reaction to it. But how had the beast returned to the modern world? It had been locked away thousands of years ago…

"So let's say this beast is indeed summoned by Scorpios, what do they want from me?" he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I don't know…but it can't be good," Kira said glumly. "You heard Francine and Pierre, they're hell-bent on bringing "justice" back to the world. It must mean someone really has a score they want to settle with you…"

_Seto…this Scorpion Beast, it's from your past! Don't you remember?_ The dragon wanted to scream out. The great Scorpion Beast had threatened to bring the ruin of the Egyptian Empire. They had defeated it together thousands of years ago and Pharaoh Seto had sealed it in into one of the great stone tablets, never to be released into the mortal world again. But the beast had implausibly reappeared.

"Kira, you know how many death threats I receive a day right? I'm the CEO of one of the world's largest corporations. After all, KaibaCorp used to manufacture weapons, like Pierre and Francine were so kind to point out."

Kira flinched. As a matter of fact, she didn't know he received death threats on a regular basis. It made her feel almost sorry for him.

"Kaiba, they tried to kidnap you…you ought to take it more seriously!" she hissed.

"They will be dealt with appropriately."

She sighed. He was really as stubborn as an ox. Despite everything, she still worried about his safety. He was kind of a jerk, but she shuddered to think of what Scorpios would do to him…

"Kira…there's something more important I have to ask you…"

"Hm?"  _What could be more important than his life?_

"How did you summon that Blue Eyes White Dragon?" his eyes widened as the question at the back of his mind was finally out in the open. "You didn't have access to my deck. The dragon, it came from your deck!"

_Forgive me, Kira,_ the dragon thought as she shrank back into her dwelling place. Kira had been gifted with a Blue Eyes White Dragon card by the man named Maximillian Pegasus so she never suspected the dragon was in fact part of her. With the power of his Millennium Eye, he had been able to look into Little Kira's mind and had seen the dragon lurking within. The man frightened the dragon but it was a good thing her host had acquired the card as it allowed her to control the dragon more easily. Without it, Kira's mind would surely have been frayed…as a child, she had been suffered from terrible seizures, no doubt from the powerful force possessing her body.

Kira's hand instinctively went to her pocket, where she kept her deck.

"So you do have a Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Kaiba's finger pointed accusingly at her. "How?! There are only 4 in the world! 3 of them belong to me and the other was destroyed! How can you come to have such a card? I must know how!"

The crazed look in his eyes made Kira blanch. She had heard the rumors the CEO had gone to great extremes to acquire his 3 Blue Eyes White Dragons, even driving a guy to suicide once. Her shoulders tensed, she would not allow him to take away her most prized possession.

"If I show you my card, are you going to take it away from me Kaiba? I heard about how you tore up Yugi's grandfather's card," she spat, a little more venomously than she had intended to.

Kaiba flinched.  _He wasn't that person anymore!_ Something had changed within him after his first duel for Yugi. He couldn't quite explain it but it felt like the darkness within his soul had lifted a little for the first time in years after that fateful duel.

"I…I've done things I'm not proud of I admit." His voice dropped to almost a whisper. "You don't understand what that card means to me…I just want to see the card…"

_He remembers!_ Thought the dragon with a forlorn smile.

Kira looked at him warily. He didn't look like he was about to tear up her card…she decided to trust her instincts.

"Here," she handed him her most prized possession. It was the one item that remained of her previous life.

"How?" he breathed as he held her card reverently in his hands. Her dragon seemed different somehow. It seemed to glow with a luminosity that his other dragons didn't possess.

"Pegasus gave it to me. He was friends with my father…" she said softly. "It's the original card, hand-painted by Pegasus himself. It never made its way into circulation and I could never bear to use it in a duel."

"You have such a powerful card and you never used it?" his eyes widened in shock. But that was the whole point of owning a powerful dragon! So that you could crush each and every one of your opponents with it. He gritted his teeth. This girl was really an enigma to him.

"As you said, the dragon holds a meaning for you which I cannot comprehend. Likewise, it also holds a special meaning for me." The tears stung at the corner of her eyes and she willed them to go away. She didn't want Kaiba to see her cry.

"Hmph, I suppose an amateur duelist like you will never come to understand this card's power," he said as he handed the card back to her. She blinked - she had half-expected him to snatch the card for himself.

"I should pack up and go now," she said, brushing off his comments. After all, Kaiba had disqualified her from his tournament.

"Where do you think you are going? The doctor hasn't discharged you yet," his voice was flat.

"I'll leave when the doctor says I can then." He was purposely trying to make things difficult for her, wasn't he?

"You might want to look at this first," he handed her a thick stack of papers.

"Legal documents," he added when he saw the look of confusion on her face as she tried to decipher their meaning. "In exchange for not speaking to the media about the unfortunate incident that happened while you were a participant in this tournament, KaibaCorp is prepared to let you keep your place. You were the top-ranking duelist in the qualifiers after all. Take your time to think about it Kira, but don't take too long because your match is the first one tomorrow. Looks like you are up against Weevil Underwood." he got up to go.

"Kaiba wait!" he turned around.

"Thank you!" she beamed. "I knew you had a heart deep down inside!"

It occurred to him that she had a radiant smile. It suited her a lot more than the scowl she liked to inflict upon him. A ghost of a smile twitched at his lips as he turned to leave.

"The result of our last duel was inconclusive. I look forward to continuing it, that is if you somehow manage to make your way past the next round!"

_Don't let your sister down Kira,_ he thought.  _She'll be rooting for you._

While her host smiled happily, the dragon felt a deep sense of dread rising within her.

_You barely managed to escape with your life Seto! The danger is real…How did the Scorpion manage to escape from its tablet? I will protect you at all costs!_

* * *

He reclined in his chair, taking in the video footage from the duel.

_As expected…_ he thought, before erupting into a fit of laughter that had him clutching at his sides.

"What's so funny?" came a haughty voice from behind.

"Ah my dear Francine, you're back. And it looks like you've let your guests get away? Such a shame. I was hoping to have a nice chat with Seto Kaiba." He swiveled around, staring at her straight in the eyes.

The blond girl stiffened.

"Why are you watching that?" she sniffed, cocking her pointy chin up in the air at the sight of the dragon that has ensured her and her brother's defeat.

The man detected the strong hatred rising up in her.

_You can't fight the darkness within you! It is human nature. They all have monsters lurking in their souls – they are all filled with demon ka! The shadows are the only place befitting such vile and evil creatures._

"Beautiful isn't it?" he smirked, gesturing at the screen.

"The girl?" Francine rolled her eyeballs. Yes, she had to admit the girl was rather attractive, but only in the way all girls her age were. Her fingers went instinctively to the scar on her cheek.

"No you fool, her dragon! The girl is merely its host – a useless shell, expendable. But by Ra, her dragon is a magnificent creature!"

"So?" Francine retorted in a condescending tone.

"Is that the way to talk to your master, Francine?" he admonished, allowing a ferocious expression to flash across his face that he knew would send chills down her spine. Humans were so predictable.

"F..Forgive me, Master, I did not mean to be rude…" the girl blanched, her face turning as white as a sheet. She had forgotten how frightening theM could be when he was in a bad mood. Pierre was usually the one who had been better at handling the master's tantrums.

_Pierre…_ her eyes glazed over sadly at the thought of her brother.

"Why is her dragon so special? Sure it is a Blue Eyes White Dragon, but Seto Kaiba has 3 of them himself! They'll be ours once we get our hands on them. They will make a fine instrument with which to carry out our vengeance!" she huffed, narrowing her eyes at the sight of the dragon. Who knew the little shrimp had such a powerful monster lurking in her deck? She was determined to obtain the beast for herself.

He merely laughed in response. This girl was merely a child in the world…

"You fool Francine, that dragon is a creature of light. It does not bow so easily to any master. It is a pure spirit."

Francine gave him a questioning look.

He sighed, he was going to have to explain this from the beginning.

"Ever heard of the story of the Pharaoh with the White Dragon? Because he was not chosen by the Gods themselves, he was never able to wield their power. But this Pharaoh came upon a powerful creature, one whose powers could rival that of the Gods of Egypt – the White Dragon! He ruled with it by his side, becoming more and more infatuated with its beauty, until he neglected his Empire and everything that he once held dear to him. The Pyramids of Egypt fell in time. The Pharaoh gave up everything, all for a Dragon…"

"Like I said…The dragon is not that special…"

"You faced its power, didn't you?" he turned to face her, with a feral intensity in his eyes that made her take a step back in fear. "Did you quake at its might? Its light burns through the soul of mere mortals! That dragon! That's the reason why your brother fell!"

"Pierre?" the girl blanched. "It's just Solid Vision, he'll get up soon enough."

The Master laughed cruelly, his laughter reverberating throughout the entire room.

"I'm afraid her dragon is the real deal. Its white lightning burst has frayed your brother's mind. Such a terrifying light…"

"You mean to say?" Francine's eyes widened to the size of saucers. Impossible! The dragon was merely a hologram. "But we didn't play  _it_! The dragon can't be real!"

"It is real Francine, search your heart and you will know it. The dragon has all but killed your brother. And good riddance to him, I said I wanted Seto Kaiba alive."

Francine's blood boiled. She would rip Kira Weiss apart with her own bare hands for what she did to her brother! The girl would pay…

_Yes my dear, let your rage consume you! You will serve the darkness better this way!_ The man thought, a sly smile stretching across his face. Perhaps the girl Kira was the key after all. An idea was beginning to form in his mind…He wondered if the girl even knew about her connection to the Pharaoh he sought.

_Pharaoh Seto, son of Aknadin…_ He sneered at the thought of his name. He was close to exacting his revenge on the Pharaoh…

"I'll kill her, Master!" Francine growled, her face twisting into a nasty sneer.

"You will do no such thing," he said calmly, rising to his full height.

"Master! Let me avenge my brother!"

"In time my dear Francine," he smiled coldly. "For now, I have other plans. It is finally ready."

_Kisara looks like you found a way into the mortal world…_

"You mean?" Francine's voice dropped to a reverent whisper.

He nodded.

"We've finally managed to do it! Your hard work has not been in vain. The card that will ensure our success has already been delivered to the chosen duelists. Everything is already set in place…"

The girl dropped her head.

"And Seto Kaiba?"

"He'll get what's coming to him…I've been waiting a long time for this…I will savor every moment of it!"

The girl merely nodded. No one knew how old the Master really was, or what he did before starting Scorpios but what she knew was that he had the best intentions for the world. The Earth was crawling with vile and evil men who had corrupted its innocence – there would be no justice until they could seize it for themselves! They were going to create a better world, no matter what the cost.

The Master turned his eyes back to the screen. He eyed the dragon with a knowing smile.

_Soon the Shadow Games will return to mankind! Why should the power of the shadows lie in the hands of a chosen few? Let humanity judge itself. You can't stop me ….Your dragon can't save you this time, Pharaoh Seto!_

End of Chapter 8


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